I just published last week’s new ForumBuildr v2.0 BETA build: The Urbane Dictionary. This build is notable for several reasons: It’s the second week we’ve done restricted submissions: so far the trend is good! Last week all submissions averaged -3 votes. This week they averaged 6! Consequently, I think it was a lot funnier as a result. There’s some AAA material in there! It’s also our 24h forum, unlocking the new Veado E-Peen(tm)!. ...
Not sure why yet but we’ve been running pretty slowly since late last night. I’m keeping a close eye on the server and hopefully I’ll figure out the problem soon! Update: 3:03PM I took the site down for emergency maintenance to try and figure out the problem. I think I figured it out – a user posted RIDICULOUSLY long messages in flamebate repeatedly, and every time someone hit those discussions it caused the database to barf as people kept opening the thread over and over. As a result I’ve limited the size of Flamebate posts to 4k. This is why you can’t have nice things guys! ...
We were featured on the 82nd episode of NoobToob! [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34jX8XoPhRI&hl=en] If you want to hear about Forumwarz, skip to around the 15 minute mark. The review is very flattering!
All of the core Forumwarz team live in Toronto, and we’re all pretty proud of that fact. Toronto has two major weekly newspapers, and we were lucky enough to be featured in this week’s issue of NOW! magazine: Because the game was designed by Torontonians, some Hogtown references pepper the game. For instance, a character named Doctor O. is based on Cory Doctorow, a famous Toronto-born blogger, tech writer and NOW cover boy, and one animated sequence for the Emo Kid avatar features a TTC bus stop sign. As Drach explains, a game like Forumwarz could only have come from Toronto. ...
Today I launched our latest ForumBuildr v2.0 Beta forum, DeviousArtists. This was the first week where we tried limiting ForumBuildr submissions and I think the quality stayed high! Be sure to check it out!
Just a reminder to anyone who’s in Toronto and is interested in the technical aspects of Forumwarz, we’re presenting at TSOT project night tomorrow night. At least three members of Crotch Zombie will be on hand to answer questions and stuff. Then afterwards we can grab a beer at a local bar. Hope to see some of you tomorrow!
It’s Evil Trout’s birthday! Let’s all wish Evil Trout a happy birthday! Happy birthday! …Evil Trout! Yeah!
We have a new contest for the month of March. We want people to post original videos of themselves, delivering a “crotch zombie” to a victim — willing or otherwise! What’s a crotch zombie? It’s when you put your hands over your crotch and start slowly walking towards your mark, impressing your groin upon them while moaning and assuming the vacant stare of the walking undead. It’s…it’s actually quite immature and stupid. And it’s the name of our parent company. Go figs! ...
This morning I found out that Futuremark, a Finnish company famous for their software benchmarking products, have requested a trademark for the word Pwnage. Seriously. The word Pwnage. A word that pulls 2 million results on Google, and the same one that we happen to make heavy use of in Forumwarz. (In the introduction for our game, we come up with our own mythology of the term, calling it the recently discovered fifth force of physics: “A force so strong that, when harnessed properly, can destroy a web forum from the inside out.”) ...
If you’re interested in the technology behind Forumwarz and live in Toronto, you might want to come out to the next TSOT Ruby on Rails Project night, where we’re giving a short presentation about the challenges involved in building a site like Forumwarz. Of course we’ll also be around to answer any questions, and afterwards there is pub outing which we will be attending. Here are the details: TSOT Ruby on Rails Project Night Tuesday March 11, 2008 Doors and Snacks 5:30pm Presentations at 6:00pm ...