Topic

The ways in which Glitch sucks

Okay, not really. We all love Glitch and want to make babies with it. But there are some things that keep poking at me that need addressing.

1. Projects suck. See Zeeberk's thread, for example: beta.glitch.com/forum/gener...
We've talked about this a fair piece on the forums, but they still seem to be feeding frenzies and not helping build community. I am off projects lately.

2. More broadly, it seems like "community" is broken right now.

3. There must be some way to allow players to create. Granted, I don't know the right path here, and we can't do minecraft-level creation (though I kinda wish we could, 'cause minecraft is excellent), but there must be a way to allow it. I do think this will (in my vision, and probably not TinySpeck's) require a shift in control over what each location looks like. Right now, all we can change is what trees are planted and what animals are there. We need more.

4. Everything that can be done by players should be un-doable, though probably with a higher skill level. For example, I know that too many critters is an issue for Flash. But a player can't move a chicken or a butterfly. We can only move pigs. We should be able to place and remove all critters. It also kinda bugs me that the block makers become permanent fixtures... though I don't have that skill yet, so I don't have any use for them, so they just seem like eyesores.

5. I am sorry about the butterfly garden, but only sorta. It was beautiful! What I wonder here is if instead of rules or dev intervention, the world could deteriorate in a way more obvious to players and that players would have to clean up a world too cluttered with critters (or whatever). Too many critters (or whatever) could trigger the rook, or a more general call to community help, and players would have to fix it.

6. It will probably help at some point if there is some kind of a global bulletin board that has announcements including current or projected street projects, other things that need fixin', information about new lands opening, etc.

7. What does the new world look like? This is a little related to 2, in that I wish players had more of a hand. I know TS folks work hard to make each location, but I wish as players we had more control. Yes, this feeds right into the "let us create" refrain. I think this would be more of a reward than trophy pieces. And again, as long as things that went awry were fixable if a disaster world were created, it would all be okay.

Okay, I'll shut up now.

Posted 20 months ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

Previous 1 2
  • 8. Clare just plays too much and there is no way I can compete on the leaderboards.

    OK, that was totally tongue in cheek, but I did feel that for myself before the reset I had just outplayed [close friend of outgrew] the game that was created at that point and most of my grumbling about things extended from that. That or the small scale of the world and everyone still in the "we're all ONE group mentality, rather than a big enough community to start seeing how smaller niche groups played out.

    I wouldn't want to try and refute all your points, because I agree with many of them and think they're valid concerns (though with 3 projects going on at the same time with a LONG walk between them and the "group" focusing on one I thought that rather than a feeding frenzy there were long stretches of opportunities for whole other groups to make an impact on projects. As the world grows and the population grows I think we'll find that compartmentalization alleviates some of your concerns.
    Posted 20 months ago by Another Chris Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree with a lot of what both Clare and Zeeberk have said about the projects.  

    However, one thing that occurs to me is that right now because of the limited testing time there's an artificial urgency to completing the projects that runs counter to the built-in difficulty of some of the tasks.  Like this test, everyone was dying to break through to the Tower, and there's always this feeling that "oh my god there's only another day/hour/minute so we've gotta get this done RIGHT NOW."  Maybe when we're out of Beta and the game's on all the time, we won't feel like we have to do everything so fast.  I would actually be for making the projects MORE difficult - like crystals, where the only way to get more barnacles is to cooperate with other people and you need to coordinate with others collecting fireflies and there's no way to cheat.

    I would also add

    9.  I wish there was a back story, or some kind of general sense that we were getting somewhere.  I think if it's only about collecting things and donating them to projects over and over again, it's going to get stale pretty quick.
    Posted 20 months ago by Tradescantia Subscriber! | Permalink
  •   Oh, I think it's way too early to apply the word "sucks", :>

    I'm always in awe of people who develop games of any kind.  And this kind of game is a whole other level of awesome, in terms of the mental discipline needed to create the structure.  To not let it become some kind of "big ball of wibbly wobbly... time-y wimey... stuff."

    Problems just don't equal "suck", they are just what happens as you open a developing game to the riff-raff (I include myself in that crowd)  We just don't use it as imagined (not that I killed trees, for fun or otherwise).  I'm amazed the devs don't just tell us to shut up and go away. :)

    there's lots of work to be done, and while we all want it done NOW, it will be a long time until we see a hint of "doneness".
     
    In the while, I want to pet some pigs! :)
    Posted 20 months ago by Tibbi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • 10. I think there needs to be some kind of limit to some things a player can do!
    Two examples: flooding areas with animals,and killing trees.
    a) Flooding areas with animals is amusing once,after that it just ain't funny anymore.
    b) Then there is the issue of tree-killing,for whatever reason,including to intentionally annoy other players.
    There already have been some very heated arguments about the tree killing in particular,and we're not even open to the general public yet! In part this is fuelled by 'mischievous kids',but the big 'legitimate reason' trees are being cut down is to get materials for building projects,in particular soil,loam etc.
    Trees take time to grow and produce food/items,but only if someone takes the time to re-plant them! Why have trees?
    Apart from looking pretty,and producing seeds for future trees, trees also produce edibles,and they also produce basic ingredients for all kinds of things,such as spices and bubbles and paper for example,which in turn are essential ingredients for other things,like writing notes for friends,cooking up food,making drinks etc.
    A possible and perfectly fair solution to the tree problem would be: if you kill 3 (three) trees,you cannot kill any more, anywhere, until you have (re)planted 3 (three) trees,no exceptions.
    Posted 20 months ago by ~Scilly~ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Does it make better sense to take the trees out of the process all together. Building Project materials should be generated in a way that doesn't involve the food-type resources generators.

    Remember just because it's worked this way up to now, doesn't mind it has to continue this way. I think the last beta test showed it's not scale-able as the population grew.  Which is what beta testing is for. :)

    Separate these kinds of resource generators.
    Posted 20 months ago by Tibbi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Oh, I love that last idea ScillyGirl5. Wouldn't that p-off the griefers, haha. And still leave a patch for dirt gathering and the seedling quest.
    Posted 20 months ago by Phoebe Springback Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree with every one of Clare's points.

    The only point I don't *totally* agree with is #1 ... most projects suck and don't build community, but there were a few in the last test that were very social and collaborative.

    Problem is, those projects only represented something like 10% of all the completed projects.

    Two primary reasons behind this..

    #1 The projects suck. Building "Yet Another Cookie-Cutter Shimla Mirch Street" just got repetitive and boring. The building tasks were always the same, and the streets full of loam and barnacles and jellisacs served no purpose other than to build more Cookie-Cutter streets full of loam and barnacles and jellisacs. Then we got teased by a "Tower" that turned out to be nothing but wallpaper for a couple generic streets.

    #2 Fun collaboration on projects is possible, but requires way too much energy. Ok, so to collaborate on a project you need to A] Have a group with a group chat and lots of members B] Have someone get up the energy to drum up participation in the channel C] Sustain that energy even through the many game imposed "lulls" in building. Phase pauses, project spawning, etc.

    Glitch needs to up its game in terms of artwork and aesthetic variety. Hopefully you're sitting on a mountain of usable artwork and are working on a better variety of gameplay styles for when the game goes public beta, because what there is now just doesn't cut it when compared to other offerings out there.

    Projects also need some G-D collaborative infrastructure. I still think each project should spawn its own temporary chat channel, and surely there are ways to make the ever-present communal actions swarms into something requiring greater coordination.
    Posted 20 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • (striatic used capitalisation? How can this be?)
    Posted 20 months ago by Hburger Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I really, really don't like being able to build and build and build on one set of streets. I really wished there as a 'building cool down' for a region... once the second project completes in a region, gotta wait 7 hours before another one could potentially populate in that region (I say 7 because it's a totally different Glitch Day by then, and gives folks in a different time zone a chance to build).

    I agree there's an artificial urgency and things will settle down. I agree it's made 1000 times easier by the ability to have someone stand at a vendor and auction the necessary materials... I also agree other groups *do* get a chance if they're motivated. Some of the biggest project people this test were folks who have been playing about a month. Once they got organized, they've been having great success.

    I still want to lobby for ridiculously high requirements (volume wise), and at least one 'really hard to obtain' set of things in each phase of a projects. Think along the lines of motivating the hoarders to clear out their stocks.
    Posted 20 months ago by Travinara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i like the idea of higher volume requirements for *certain* projects.

    most projects ought to have significant but attainable donation requirements. the current amounts aren't that bad.

    but there needs to be at least a couple streets per region with *really cool stuff*. these streets should have truly massive building requirements by volume and by energy.

    it is *absolutely critical* that the aesthetic and gameplay payoff on these massive projects matches the effort put into completing them. everything hinges on this. i wouldn't mind projects lasting days or weeks so long as the payoff was *truly spectacular*.
    Posted 20 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • (That's more like it.)

    What ever happened to the million ingot project of the Giant Golden Platypus?
    Posted 20 months ago by Hburger Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I still think each project should spawn its own temporary chat channel...

    Brilliant. Especially if it called attention to itself so that everyone knew about the new project. Also maybe you should be allowed one free teleport to a new project (or phase).

    I'm wondering if the donated items should not be raw materials. You should have to make complex things and donate them. But we don't have enough complex things yet that would be relevant to street building. We'd want stuff like wood and nails to build supports and dullite and lemonade to mix concrete and loam and earth and honey to make tar, whatever. The low-level Glitchies could donate the raw materials to the site, which might also act as a vendor, reselling the donated raw materials. High-level glitchkins would be prohibited from donated raw materials. (Similarly for skills, perhaps.. there could be limits on how much can be done by glitchkins of different skill levels. E.g., I could do only Level 5 Gardening watering... and newbies would have to be recruited to handle the Level 1 watering.) A considerably more complicated system, for sure, so I don't know.

    And :-p to Another Chris (<3). As I and others have said, leveling up is not that hard if that's what you decide you want to do. (But working on projects, for example, doesn't help.)
    Posted 20 months ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink
  • dunno.

    .. but what i do know is that a Giant Golden Platypus wouldn't be enough for me. it would have to be a Giant Golden Platypus that Does Something Cool.
    Posted 20 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "Brilliant. Especially if it called attention to itself so that everyone knew about the new project. Also maybe you should be allowed one free teleport to a new project (or phase)."

    i suggested the "project chat" months and months ago, but nothing came of it.
    Posted 20 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • A Giant Golden Robot Platypus.
    Posted 20 months ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink
  • i suggested the "project chat" months and months ago, but nothing came of it.

    Well, they are kinda busy.

    <3
    Posted 20 months ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink
  • 1,3,7: I had a "projects suck" tipping point when I bought a tonnage of hooch and then it wasn't needed even though I arrived swiftly via 1 subway stop and had announced it was coming in the New Streets chat. So definitely, there needs to be a project-specific group and it should be mandatory to join it to contribute for the duration of the project. Then let the group members sort it out amongst themselves. Perhaps have a persistent chat/forum model for this so project members can catch up on what has occured while they were gone. I think projects should be more of a relaxed effort taking several days but I don't have an idea to enforce that given the natural urge to finish it ASAP (which I think will continue to happen even when God & his crab minion aren't looming for shutdown). I I enjoyed the concept of those projects that had a choice to make about what kind of streets to build. That kind of interaction would allow players to feel like they had a hand in shaping the world, to Clare's creation point, and if the choices are designed well it shouldn't cause community tension but perhaps some fun campaigning. The creation aspect shouldn't be just about filling up a bucket with random things but about shaping the creation itself either aesthetically or for resource preferences (or both).

    2: Community building is always difficult and no matter what precautions are taken in game design, there will be typical growing pains at various stages. There will be people who push boundaries and hot buttons, the dramatic exits, the outright trolls. It's part of what brings the community closer together and grows it (or, yes, can kill it). I'd expect that Stewart will make "My Tiny Life" or similar cautionary tales from the MOO world mandatory reading for his community-focused Tiny Speck folks. So I'm more on the "relax, we'll get through it" side of the community opinion, but I know it can turn off a lot of people from enjoying what is there and so there's some work to be done in the design to balance. But it won't catch everything. You can't have player creation and control without the chance for barbaric behavior. Glitch would be a lot more boring if nobody could screw it up.

    6: A bulletin board should be easy (well, relatively speaking!) to place on the entry web page, so hopefully that'll come (sooner than my beehives :-). The real overhead would be keeping it regularly updated, so a community-run wiki page that devs can also contribute to might be a stopgap (or even longer term solution).

    5: (yes I'm going out of order) The butterfly garden was gorgeous and imho within the bounds of what beta testing is about: trying everything you can to see what will break. It's good QA. Full disclosure: Clare's a good friend of mine, but I'm not just saying this because she named the butterflies all after me.
    Posted 20 months ago by girlhacker Subscriber! | Permalink
  • p.s. I didn't realize the butterfly garden would cause anyone any grief. It was just a self-designed project and I really did think it looked wonderful. 

    I was thinking that the butterflies wouldn't be in the way of other things, the way too many pigs are. And I didn't notice it affecting my browser at all.
    Posted 20 months ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @striatic said: "Then we got teased by a "Tower" that turned out to be nothing but wallpaper for a couple generic streets."

    We actually did end up unlocking the tower--it's a huge building that takes up several streets... It's certainly not wallpaper, although it is "closed" right now.
    Posted 20 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Shepherdmoon: I think that's what stri meant - the fact that the tower is closed, is what he meant by they were teasing us. The fact that nothing 'good' came out of it.
    Posted 20 months ago by Hburger Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ah, well, I still think it was pretty cool because it's the first building I've seen unlocked, and it's fun trying to speculate what it might be for. I'm sure it will be open next test.
    Posted 20 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think it would be cool if there could be specific trees for cutting for building while leaving the fruiting trees for harvest of fruit, paper, etc. Pine, cypress, oak, whatever would look nice in a particular area. Perhaps even a forest or 2.

    Added to say I really did like the butterflies pavilion.
    Posted 20 months ago by Gruff McGruff Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Shepherdmoon: I feel the same way ;)
    Posted 20 months ago by Hburger Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree with McGruff about the trees designated for planks.  If the only way to get planks is from dead trees (and random spawns) then it seems likely the tree killing will continue.  Having lumber trees that can be harvested from, or even chopped down and then automatically resprout after a time would help.

    As for the street projects, some people really enjoy that aspect of the game.  It feels like we're helping to create our world.  I do agree that having other sorts of projects would help reduce the tedium of street after street.  Perhaps we could have projects where we help build housing areas, subway stations, or even shrines?  Maybe shrines could have two or three tiers of improvements, and each tier would provide a slightly higher bonus, or provide a particular buff for certain types of donations?
    Posted 20 months ago by Merek Subscriber! | Permalink
  • clare, I loved the butterfly garden. It was beautiful and overwhelming all at once. My only beef was that I tried to massage and milk one and realized they were all named the same! I felt as if I were in "Being John Malkovich" for a few seconds.

    I've already thrown my two cents in elsewhere about an definitive life cycle for crop trees and similarly that the earth "removed" from one project should be shuttled to new ones.
    Posted 20 months ago by Mistress*of*Fishies Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I love the project chat idea.  I'd have the chat window automatically list the current requirements for the project at the top, with chat scroll beneath.  Then we would know what to bring, or whether or not to show up at all, and we wouldn't have to keep asking each other what's needed.

    According to devs who shall not be named: the tower could not open during the last test because it wasn't done. :)  There will be Things To Do inside the tower.  We did unlock Tower East and Tower South by the end of the test, and I'm sure that West and North will follow.

    As for the creative aspect of the game, I've heard several times now that blockmaking will allow us to actually build things.  Whether or not they will be of our own design, I do not know, but I look forward to finding out.

    I enjoyed the ninety-nine piglets which appeared on my street last week, but I did not enjoy the ninety-nine pigs which appeared yesterday, especially since I was on a netbook and things were a bit laggy to begin with.  A limit to the number of animals placed on a single street would certainly be a welcome change.  A wonderful developer removed most of the pigs, though.
    Posted 20 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I especially agree with #3, having a bigger influence on areas that so many players visit all the time can give more incentive to keep playing. Allowing players to change how public streets look could have too many problems though, so at least let us decorate our homes?
    Posted 20 months ago by Rakel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "According to devs who shall not be named: the tower could not open during the last test because it wasn't done. :) "

    I grok that, but they ended up teasing a tease, which was just too much.
    Posted 20 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • A detailed reply will come later, but, in the meantime: this is definitely the favorite thread in the office(s) today. Please keep going!

    And for the record, as someone who has put his life into this for the last two years, the overarching emotion I get when I show someone Glitch for the first time is a deep shame (for all the things we have not yet done or all the things we have so far done poorly). But, however long it takes, the game will suck much less in the future (we will be actively developing it many years after beta is over).
    Posted 20 months ago by stoot barfield Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Aw, stoot, you shouldn't feel ashamed. You have given us a wonderful world to play in, and the ability to be creative in it. 

    Now, if I could just have my house in Ix with a backyard to keep chickens and pigs in, I'd be really happy :D 
    Posted 20 months ago by Essie Kitten Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Oh Stoot! If only you could, just for a moment, show someone Glitch for the first time through their eyes! You would be dazzled and amazed! You would find yourself chuckling and gobbling spinach and losing yourself for hours on end. You and your team should feel very proud about the amount of joy and entertainment you are providing people from all over the world.
    Posted 20 months ago by GreyGoose Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @sc803 I think we need to figure out a way to capture stoot and send him to the Glitchdon Clinic for rehab---LOL
    Posted 20 months ago by GreyGoose Subscriber! | Permalink
  • stoot: you should be proud of what you've accomplished.  It's beautiful, it's addictive, it has mass appeal, and it is truly coming from the minds of giants.  I understand the shame thing, because under similar circumstances I feel it too, but in this case, it's just not warranted.  If you don't believe me, or think I'm a sycophant (yuck), look at the enormous pile of crappy games out there, and then look back at groups like Glitchodone Clinic. 
    Posted 20 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The shame is what will drive Tiny Speck to a huge success.  Embrace and work it for all its worth.
    Posted 20 months ago by Tingly Claus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Lots of valid points up there and what an awesome thread. I'm totally saying +1 to point 4, especially. I wouldn't use the word "sucks" for anything about the game (I know you were kidding), but my main thing that feels lacking is further skills trees (carpentry is a big one that has come up a lot). I bet more are in the works, but I'm all about more skills!

    As to point 2: "community is broken" though... Whoa! Maybe I'm just lucky because I'm in a big group with a lot of very freakin' friendly people, but it feels like a darn good community out there to me. But maybe I'm not just lucky. Because even outside that group, I'm in smaller groups having a great time together, with people I didn't know before. And even outside that...the huge number of people just hanging around helping each other out is awesome. At the streets projects (which yes, yes, yes, need serious tweaking as to materials, timing, not having the whole dang world look like Shimla, etc.), I loved how people would leave food around for others or practice Transcendental Radiation to improve moods or offer to bring or buy materials or randomly gift others with food.... Or the people who valiantly went around replanting trees as fast as they could after the tree destructions...or the player-organized Easter egg hunt...the drive-by hugging and kissing... There's an organized greeting system going on to welcome new players now and help them out, which is going to foster the whole helping community vibe. There are these wildly busy forums while the game is down where we're all trying to better the world together and argue and discuss like crazy. I guess I just don't see community is broken...there are twerps in real life; there are some twerps in Glitch. But community is what we make it, and it seems as if we're making it pretty well. Maybe I'm missing something...

    +100 to this one: We all love Glitch and want to make babies with it. You nearly made me wet my pants there, clare. Stoot...I love you but you have clearly lost your mind about how this game is seen by newcomers :D. Rachel2635 said it perfectly. There isn't any other game out there anything like this one. Anywhere. I can see where you might feel as if there is loads of work to be done in the future because sure there's expansion and tweaking aplenty to be done, but heavens, man, look at the incredible start you guys have made! I begged my husband to try this game out after I became addicted within minutes of the first test I was involved in. He didn't think he'd go for it (he's big into individual games like Civilization) but said he'd give it a try. Ohohoho, now we argue about who better go be a parent for a while so the other one can have playtime! (Erm, my solution is that I just don't sleep much, which means I can get my fix while they're both asleep, hehe.) 

    I definitely think we need to send stoot to the Glitchodone Clinic...he needs to see all the people in there smoking the nutmeg hookah and wearing sparkly boots and trying to crawl into the game by threatening the chickens. Besides, perhaps stoot's presence in the Clinic would be something of a tonic to the poor lost souls in there ;) 
    Posted 20 months ago by RM Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm sure this has been verbalized in here before in government related conversations, but regarding the community aspect of the game, I think that it would be pretty sweet to have rules or laws implemented in a tiered fashion. Each tier comprised of citizens who vote for what rules applied to the tier(s) of which they are a part. This would allow for limiting or controlling specific behavior as well, along with the consequences of doing so.

    1) World - very general and minimal set of laws. Basic structure of the game similar to what exists now. Everyone gets a vote or things are mandated by GOD.

    2) Regional - Shimla, Groddle Forest, etc. would abide by World laws, but in addition have another set of laws that could be decided by a regional vote. Eligible voters would only be people who own a residence in that region, or possibly lobbyists who could pay for a vote. These would dictate how a region looks, whether it will be rural, urban, commercial, etc., and how to control resources to a more specific degree. Also, what projects would be undertaken and whether they would be constructed with in-region labor or accept bids from other entities. Taxes could be imposed, if desired, on resources collected or purchases made by non residents and proceeds split up equitably among residents. Don't like it? Move to another region or be a nomad. Want anarchy? Have at it.

    3) Housing Areas - rules from 1 and 2 apply, but house owners in a given area vote on trees, animals, etc. and whether I can have my car up on blocks in the driveway. Don't like it? Want a gated community? Move one street over.

    4) Street Level - creators of the street get a percentage of a vote based on their contribution and will control trees, animals, houses at that level. Want a different vendor? Build another street.

    5) House Level - if marriages are allowed...I'll leave that one for now.

    This would get somewhat complicated given the varying frequency and duration that people play, but I'm sure that could be overcome. More active and well structured regions will thrive while the neglected or unbalanced will fail.

    This also opens the door to competing regional economies as well.

    [Addendum]:
    For this to work from the start of 1.0 release, the reset would have to balance all regions with the exact same resources so that they were equal. In the beginning, since nobody will own houses, everything is wide open for everyone. Once a sufficient percentage of houses are owned in a region, a regional voting quest would be triggered by the rock for incorporation and the region vs. region competition would be on!
    Posted 20 months ago by Joe Blow Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Joe Blow! Love, love, love all those ideas!
    Posted 20 months ago by RM Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree with RM- Joe has some awesome ideas there.


    And Stoot needs more hugs.
    Posted 20 months ago by Murri Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Way too much government there!!!!

    We'll need wide-open spaces for those who can't stand the concept of every thing they do being controlled by four levels of government and laws. 
    Posted 20 months ago by WindBorn Subscriber! | Permalink
  • As I said elsewhere, I am a Glitch Libertarian, and would not favor game-implemented laws.

    However, I am fine with what I'll call game-enabled government. That is, if the game provides mechanisms for the formation of governments without imposing a particular one. (I guess this is another form of "let us create", rather than "create it for us".)


    That's some tricky stuff to add to the game, and I don't imagine it happening soon. Also, it might be way beyond the scope of Glitch... although the existence of the BureauCrocs suggests this sort of thing might have been somewhere in mind all along.
    Posted 20 months ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "Way too much government there!!!!"

    Rather, only the *ability* for way too much is there. Each region will either have way too much, way too little, or the perfect amount. The voters will decide, and regions will be successful...or not. They can be free and open, but susceptible to raids from other in-game entities (or the inevitable from other nefarious, unnamed picture board web sites). Or they'll be closed and boring-to-outsiders, perfect for a group of like minded peeps that want their own world within a world. Or somewhere in between.

    The underlying framework would have to give sufficient granularity to delegate true perceived control, though.

    "That's some tricky stuff to add to the game, and I don't imagine it happening soon"

    Agreed. However, a game that will be in development for, to quote stoot, "many years", is tricky by nature. Having one big world scale out to 100,000 or 1,000,000 or 10,000,000 is a pretty complicated thing (I'd imagine), and there are only so many types of tress and avatar skin colors that can be created. I hope that it's not outside the scope of Glitch. Building the framework and offloading the drama of constantly tweaking a world to the users seems like a cool way to go.

    Perhaps these are things that stoot's nightmares are made of?
    Posted 20 months ago by Joe Blow Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Much as I adore Joe, I cannot agree with any sort of government structure being superimposed on Ur.  Aside from the impractical nature of it (How could rules possibly be enforced?  We are not level builders, so how could we dictate the look of an area?), it limits the freedom of individuals to play as they wish to play.  I suppose additional rules could be coded into the game somehow, but I don't see how they could make things more fun.
    Posted 20 months ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • If there are HOAs in Glitch, I want to live in the one of the older neighborhoods with no such thing.  Just sayin' I can do without the condo commandos. ;)
    Posted 20 months ago by Lelu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "stoot: you should be proud of what you've accomplished. It's beautiful, it's addictive, it has mass appeal, and it is truly coming from the minds of giants. "Very, very, very well said Glum Pudding.
    really be proud! It is fantastic and still under/in development..it can only be better and better..but it is already great! It feels great, it is fun spending hours a day playing. No, I don't want to miss a thing! Bye from the Netherlands :-)
    Posted 20 months ago by Atlantis Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I didn't play in the last test (sorry, I just couldn't face my giant list of quests that I have already done 3+ times), plus Minecraft has overtaken my brain.  When I close my eyes at night, all I see are blocks.  But that doesn't mean I don't LOVE Glitch and that it decidedly should not invoke feelings of shame in anyone.   And this is a great thread, and all I would add is, piggybacking on clare's comments: 

    1. Projects don't suck, exactly.  But I have zero interest in them because I think they are still too small scale, too limited in what people can do.  They also seem to have evolved a type of player that exists to complete projects and nothing else and that bothers me for some reason. But maybe I am just being bitchy there, so possibly disregard.

    2. I think the community is re-defining itself for the most part, and I am not too worried about that. What I wish I had more of are ways to filter to just my closest friends here, so something like filters on updates--I would like to be able to not view some friends' updates, but keep them as a friend, a la facebook.  I would also like to be able to communicate to groups that exist (even temporarily) in-game, like all the people that live on my street, even if they are friends or not, or people active on a project or something like that--and I mean like send them mail, or little gifts (nice ones, I promise).

    3. "There must be some way to allow players to create."  I so agree with this one.  I would love to be able to create my own level/street, even if I was using objects that were developed by the devs according to the Glitch overall aesthetic.  Maybe it would only be accessible via a portal in my house, and I would have to be at a certain skill level and pay $ for access to the creation tools and space to store what would be become a sizable file on the game servers.  

    4. Agreed on everything.  

    5. I am sorry I missed the butterfly garden!  

    6. Global bulletin board, check.  I hope it looks like one of those crazy quilt boards at the local community center with some notes looking like business cards, some like those tear off sheets, etc.

    7. I have no idea what any of this referred to, but I trust clare, so whatever she said is probably spot on.

    ETA:  8.  Even though the million ingot gold platypus is basically an ingot dumpster in service of a specific quest, the idea of a grand scale like that is awesome. But that platypus would have to come alive and then walk away and stomp on a major city in order for it to really pay off in my view.  Or reach up and break through the sky to a new region or something.  Something that would have many players logged on at once to witness.  and naked, they should be naked too.
    Posted 20 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I missed the butterfly garden, but I like the idea of being able to move them and chickens, as well as the pigs. Butterfly net as a new item?
    Posted 20 months ago by andonida Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ok I just read this in the forums and it made me cry:-

    From Stoot
    A detailed reply will come later, but, in the meantime: this is definitely the favorite thread in the office(s) today. Please keep going!

    And for the record, as someone who has put his life into this for the last two years, the overarching emotion I get when I show someone Glitch for the first time is a deep shame (for all the things we have not yet done or all the things we have so far done poorly). But, however long it takes, the game will suck much less in the future (we will be actively developing it many years after beta is over).
    Posted 15 hr ago by stoot barfield [staff] | Permalink

    I really hope Stoot knows just what an amazing place he and his team has gifted us, and I for one am ashamed and heartbroken he doesnt realise just how much we all love him for his amazing gift
    Posted 20 months ago by Faereluth Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @ Nanookie, definitely naked. Or at least in censor bars only (as am I, lol).
    Posted 20 months ago by RM Subscriber! | Permalink
  • If I didn't love Glitch so much, I would not spend so much time playing to make it better! I find it literally (YES, LITERALLY) amazing that a man who founded this amazing project actually has time to sit down and read the forums and play the game WITH us. I can't thank him enough for that!

    p.s. I still love that the opening text of this post is "Okay, not really. We all love Glitch and want to make babies with it." It is true. Totally true. I would pop out a litter of Glitchlets, no problemo!
    Posted 20 months ago by Mistress*of*Fishies Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "But maybe I am just being bitchy there"

    LOL.

    <3

    p.s. It was 99 Butterflies Named Lilly (which will be the name of my next band), and it was so awesome to watch them twinkle around. I didn't notice Flash gagging at all, so I thought I was creating a wondrous thing for all to enjoy, not a train wreck. Ah well. Live and learn.
    Posted 20 months ago by clare Subscriber! | Permalink
Previous 1 2