I listened to your feedback about our embedded IDC client and made a bunch of fixes:

• I changed the color to look more like the rest of the site.

• You can see how many people are online, and click to get a pop up of all members in the channel.

• Resizing is less buggy.

• INCIT chat has been changed to the same interface, finally we can see who is online during an INCIT round!

• I renamed "Hide" to "Close", which is more appropriate. People thought it was loading even while hidden due to a display bug that was causing it to flicker for half a second.

• You can permanently hide the chat so it doesn't waste that 1/3rd of an inch of screen real estate under your Options.

Ever since we launched INCIT, our chat room (IDC) has been a little dead. Another reason for the lack of activity is that the only link to open IDC was quite buried in Flamebate.

As an attempt to address these problems, and introduce more people to chat in the process, I have embedded IDC on every page on Flamebate. If you go to flamebate now you will see it at the bottom.

You can chat while you read and respond to threads, and since Flamebate gets a lot more traffic than the IDC page did, you will see a lot more new faces.

Of course, if you don't like the new interface, click the Hide IDC link in the dark blue area. The chat will go away and you can resume browsing without everyone else bothering you.

Note that while it is hidden, it won't be contacting the server and nobody will see you in chat, it will be as if it was never there. If you want to bring it back, click Show IDC.

Enjoy, and feel free to post your feedback!

Up until just now there was a flat fee of 1 Brownie Point to transfer any amount of Brownie Points to another player.

This fee was put in there to make up for the fact that Brownie Points are cheaper when bought in bulk, and we didn't want people pooling their money together to get them at a cheaper rate.

However, the disadvantage was it made it quite expensive when transfering only one or two to another player. When transfering one you'd have to pay double the price!

So, for an extended period of time we are going to eliminate the transfer fee. We're doing this as an experiment to see what happens in the BP economy. I'm hoping that it means more people will transfer BP than before!

Now, as a note to our power members of the community: If you have very recently done many transfers and got dinged for it, especially in the case of a contest or other community event, please send a tubmail to me. I will look into refunding your BP.

Here are the top winners of the Emo-ku poetry contest we recently ran.

GRAND PRIZE WINNER

Vuron
New Christmas sweater
My mom knitted it for me
Trapped in woolen hell

RUNNERS-UP

MONGOLoidWARRIOR
Cheer up everyone
Your life could be a lot worse
I have downs syndrome

Kerridwen_Kali
playground swing, chain creaks
dead leaves dance beneath my feet
i scare the toddlers

More information, discussion and the rest of the top ten entries can be found in this nifty thread by Jalapeno.

The top 10 poems all received this badass new e-peen(tm)

Congratulations everyone!

I've been spending a lot of time lately on the introductory sequence to Episode 2. One thing that got a lot of positive attention with Forumwarz Episode 1 was the beginning, where Excre-Bot and Shallow Esophagus ease you into the universe and gameplay.

We spent a lot of time designing that sequence and I think the effort paid off, as our number one complaint when we launched the episode was that players were left wanting more after their first hour or two of gameplay was up and their daily visits were gone.

The opening to Episode 1 used our interactive cinematics engine. It's basically like a web-based powerpoint presentation, except that on individual slides we can trigger events and wait for other events to be triggered. The whole Excre-bot quiz was created this way, as was the interactive tutorial.

I think around the time Episode 1 was finished I came up with the idea of taking the interactive cinematics to a much larger level. I threw some ideas to Jalapeno, we did some research and then he began writing. Before I knew it, he dumped a script in my lap that was about 3,500 words long!

He kept saying to me "are you sure we can pull this off?" and my stock answer was me might as well try our best. What's the point of doing something if it isn't ambitious right?

I'm happy to say now that the cinematics engine, with a bunch of extra tweaks, was able to hold up to the new interactive introduction to Episode 2, and I'm incredibly proud of the results. It's not quite finished, and a lot of the artwork is missing, but I'm sure you guys will love the result.

To give you an idea of how much we're adding to Episode 2, there are more shots in the beginning of Episode 2 than in all of the cinematics of Episode 1 combined. In fact, by the time the sequence is polished I expect it to be over twice the size of all the cinematics in Episode 1.

In terms of other size comparisons, Episode 2 will have at least twice as many story-related forums to pwn than Episode 1.

We also recently have begun testing a new text adventure sequence (Episode 2's version of Trapped in the Cupboard), and it took me 3 hours of solid playing to beat it my first time.

The level cap will be doubling to Level 20, and all characters will receive completely new attacks and abilities.

On top of this, we're also developing completely new features that expand the gameplay and economy, but we're not ready to announce those yet.

So yes, we know waiting for a new Episode can suck, but when you see how much we're delivering, I'm sure you'll agree it was worth the wait! As Shigeru Miyamoto pointed out, nobody remembers when a game shipped late, but everyone remembers when a game was bad!

This week we're running a new theme in Forumwarz Domination called Five Finger Discount:

It has two differences:

• If you Dominate 4 forums on your own, you will receive a reward of 5 vanilla scoops (it is normally 1).
• There are no shield cards in circulation.

The first change is designed to encourage more people to try and solo domination, since the reward is so high.

The second change makes it impossible to hoard shield cards, and should mean everyone is on an open playing field to get screwed over.

Have fun! As always, you can suggest more themes in our suggestions thread. Or you can discuss this current theme in its own thread.

Also a couple of small updates:

• There are now stats at the bottom of Flamebate's main page showing you current activity
• The "Unique Forums" pwned count on your Forum Visits history now matches the one used to allocate Pistachio scoops.

I've just published our latest forum build, Great Firewall of China. It is incredibly hard to beat. I figured that we have more than enough existing community forums to cover the regular spread of difficulty, why not bring it up a notch and see how you guys do?

I will give out E-Peen(tm) to anyone who beats it before Episode 2 is launched. It's that hard!

Here's the description of the forum:

Sorry excellent friends of the hallowed chairman! You no access internets because we despise capitalist spears of effluence! No googles! No Yahoos! No journalisms! Very Limited Porn Video Movies! All your intarnets are belong to our massive firewall! You not allowed trying go around wall reaching many other nonlegal webcities. VIOLATORS WILL BE PROSTITUTED.

Our next forum will be Internet Movie DoucheBags

Do you constantly argue about movies? Is your ego directly correlated with other people's opinions of your favorite film? If so, you'll find yourself at home among the Internet Movie DoucheBags (IMDB). Mock the tastes of your obviously misguided companions, nitpick every detail of movies that most people only bothered to watch once, trade inane celebrity gossip, and use pretentious film-school terms to defend the movies you like.

One more thing...

Jalapeno Bootyhole just added over 70 new avatars to ForumBuildr. Should make the enemies slightly more exciting eh?

So on Wednesday night, Forumwarz Domination: Season 1 ended. Click the link for the final rankings.

Congratulations to all the winners!

We're going to be recording a Forumwarz podcast soon and we're looking for people to submit questions for us to answer.

Please post them in this thread on Flamebate!

As you know, we're hard at work on Episode 2 right now. There's still a fair bit to go, but we've made a lot of progress and things are really starting to shape up!

In Episode 1, after you choose your character you are given a short cinematic introducing that archetype's storyline. All three classes have a different storyline which continues in Episode 2.

We've brought back the artists who did the Emo and Troll cinematics, but we've lost touch with the Camwhore artist. We are looking for someone who thinks they can imitate the style of the MS-painted camwhore art in all new panels.

This is a paid gig, and if you do a good job there will be an opportunity to contribute more art to our site in the future.

If this sounds like something you'd be good at, please tubmail me or send an email to eviltrout at the game's domain name with samples of your work.

Thanks!

We've launched 6 new E-Peen(tm) types today!

Leaderboard E-Peen(tm)

Creative Inputer - For topping the INCIT wins leaderboard.

Freemason - For topping the Highest Buildr Score leaderboard.

High in Dietary Fiber - For topping the most Hall of Shit votes leaderboard.

Assorted E-Peen(tm)

Ol' Spread-Eagle Eyes - For finding an inadvertent typo or textual error within the game.

The Big Give - For successfully running a contest for BP.

(Note: I don't have a good list of who has previously run a contest for BP. If you have run one, or contributed BP to one, please Tubmail me the link to the contest in Flamebate and the name of the winner so I can check your records and award it!)

My Ass Got Infected, Coach - For succesfully pwning 32 different forums in a row.

(Note: Some people might have pwned 32 forums in a row after last night's build was published but before this E-Peen(tm) was available. If you were one of those people, Tubmail me and I'll look into it for you!)

I just published our latest forum buiild, Something Lawful!

Here's the description:

The Something Lawful forums allow litigious web surfers to procure legal advice from the internet's top attorneys. Learn how to sue someone via AIM! How to subpoena someone through email! What can the verdict of Tubgirl v. Starwars Geek do for you? Find out today!

Next week's forum is the incredibly bizarre Dolphin Love:

Do you like dolphins? What about whales? Come discuss your favorite Cetaceans with us! Post beautiful pictures of Duskys, Orcas, Bottlenoses and more in our friendly forums. Dolphins are so beautiful and graceful. I love them so much, and so should you. If you don't love dolphins, come in anyway, and see what you're missing. Dolphins have prehensile penises! HOW HOT IS THAT?!

Our very own BINGEBOT 2015 posted the following important announcement on Flamebate regarding Forumwarz Domination:

<START TRANSMISSION>

We've been playing domination for 4 months now. And what does that mean?

The current season of Domination is ending May 28th! That gives you 3 weeks to get your medals and earn your E-Peen™... WHAAA-?

That's right folks, 3 weeks and then E-Peens™ will be awarded to the top medal winners. All medal counts will be reset and we'll start a fresh season. It's safe to say that we'll be doing this every 4 months to keep things fresh. Also, look forward to "feature week" in the new season, we've been discussing them here if you'd like more info.

Oh, one last thing. The final week of Domination Season 1 (Week starting Mary 21st) will award DOUBLE MEDALS to all medal winners that week!

Good luck to all.

B2015

<END TRANSMISSION>

We've just published Homicide Girls:

Homicide girls is the internet's #1 source of terrifying BDSM with gorgeous Goths. Are you hot for hack saw porn? Does the thought of a girl beating you unconscious with a rusty chain saw turn you on? Thousands of sexy ways to die are waiting just for you.

Our next build will be Second Wife:

Second Wife is a 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and marry multiple times using voice and chat. Join one of many user-created communes where you can specialize in gardening, animal husbandry, textile crafts, child-rearing, and spouse-swapping. Membership requires registration and a monthly tithe of 10% of your income.

Small Update

You can no longer "re-roll" the number of threads given to you in a forum. See this thread for details.

Forumwarz has been reviewed on the Onion's A.V. Club! It will also be featured in the print version of the paper:

At first glance, ForumWarz is just a fantastically offensive satire of the Internet. The interface fits right inside your browser to give you a new browser, crammed with dummied-up Google apps, message boards filled with gibbering morons, and fly-by parodies of technorati like BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow or supergamer Fatal1ty. It's an elaborate piss-take on the Web. But ForumWarz's real accomplishment is in threading an actual story through all the fetishes and so-three-minutes-ago memes.

All in all a very solid review! It would be nice if they review could actually link to our game though :)