Text RPG - feedback wanted!

Nice. I would also suggest doing a wikipedia-style thing where people need accounts to edit so that it's easier to manage griefers by banning. This has the potential if you add the inventory and skills and whatnot.

I've had a quick look and I think it's a nice idea.

Since it is freely editable I hope you're doing regular backups (with several iterations). You will get some idiot trying to come along and destroy the whole thing, so you'll want something to be able to restore from.

Yeah, I noticed this was a problem. That some people edited one of the first pages and wrote "poop" instead just to troll around.

I think what I will do is that you first have to win the game once before editing it. ...or work with either chapters/areas and you can only edit parts you've already been successfully been through.

As for the backups, I store every update on any page, so it should be possible to allow a rollback to the previous version or a reviewing process. ...It's just work.

+1

Very nice project. I am actually working on something extremely similar! (feel free to message me to share thoughts, resources, and etc)

Good luck! ^__^

Hi,

I would be very interested to hear more about it!
Perhaps we can help each other.

Cheers,
Arnaud

Man, it's really annoying! What's up with people who always destroy stuff?!

Choose Your Own Wikiventure! That is pretty cool. But yeah you're gonna have to put some barriers in there. Some men just want to watch the world burn.

Well, I guess a "poop-pussy-penis" webapp would be much more successful.
...apparently, that's 95% of the content edited.
Congrats to the gamedev community!
(no, of course I also know there are some great people here, lost in the crowd)

...that being said, I'm working on a "safer" version where editing is restrained.
PS: thanks Heath for the encouraging words

It's a really interesting model. I could only get a single page to work though (page 2 I believe).

perhaps you could include a "report page" feature. This could default to a previous "safe" edit until a moderator had a opportunity to look at the page in question. Kind of a fail safe...

I'm interested in the project! I've a bit of experience in web design & programming (php, sql, and the likes). message me if you want any assistance.

Yeah, this moderation check is indeed a good idea
It was actually on my "todo" list some time ago but hoped I wouldn't need it in the beginning. This shows me how wrong I was.
I also find it great you wanna help! Cool! (I have to go right now but I'll contact you soon)

That said, at the moment, people wanting to write something great is what is missing the most.
I also wonder also whether the "crowd" could achieve writing an as good story as a dedicated writer.(?)

Perhaps include both? A dedicated writer to make [daily|weekly] updates and allow the users themselves to write parts of the story. Why not?

Actually, this is a great idea. I'm a bit reluctant to hire a writer (no budget), but it is definitely a good idea!

Sadly these things happen. I'd suggest calculating a trust factor for users, based on how long they've been a member, how much they have played, and how many banned words they have entered into the system. If a user falls too low on trust factor, only allow them to see their changes. Nobody else sees them until a moderator has approved them. If they think their changes are public, they're unlikely to test the system to see exactly what they can get away with, e.g. figure out which words are banned etc.

Man, it's really annoying! What's up with people who always destroy stuff?!

This is a fun question. A game offers options, manipulations. Players are curious. Destroying the game, if allowed by the game, is an act of self-expression, and it is gameplay (see examples of 'killing lord british' in the ultimas).
That said, players will go for the most fun / less effort option they can find.
The UI made it clear they could edit the content, while it wasn't necessarily just as clear that it would be fun to go through the adventure.
Once they started editing it, they either had to think it through, or do something simple.
Thus "fuck" is much easier to use than actually crafting additional opportunities within the game.

That said, your game concept is interesting. I'll wait and see what comes out of it!

This is a fun question. A game offers options, manipulations. Players are curious. Destroying the game, if allowed by the game, is an act of self-expression, and it is gameplay (see examples of 'killing lord british' in the ultimas).
That said, players will go for the most fun / less effort option they can find.
The UI made it clear they could edit the content, while it wasn't necessarily just as clear that it would be fun to go through the adventure.
Once they started editing it, they either had to think it through, or do something simple.
Thus "fuck" is much easier to use than actually crafting additional opportunities within the game.

That said, your game concept is interesting. I'll wait and see what comes out of it!

+1. Very nice explanation!

I just checked out the new improvements, and I must say: good job! Love the updated interface and log-in system (much needed!).

You're making me very motivated to progress with my version of the game. Don't worry, we're not direct competitors, my game is quite different from yours: its more of an improvement on Interactive Fiction (IF) rather than game books, and I will have 1 fixed author to write the story.

Wow, you were really quick to notice! I just uploaded it a few minutes ago! ;)
(actually it's still "in-progress" as I have to make e-mail activation, but I leave it open for now, it's still kind of a prototype)

By the way, what do you think of the "classes", do you think it makes sense?

It's also kind of lame if I disable the editing or make it too difficult to contribute (registration, finishing the game, reviewed by a moderator), because it would kind of destroy its purpose. ...at this point, I could as well do a "read only" adventure
...i still prefer let people troll around at this moment ...even if it means restoring a backup regularly.

Wow, you were really quick to notice! I just uploaded it a few minutes ago! ;)
(actually it's still "in-progress" as I have to make e-mail activation, but I leave it open for now, it's still kind of a prototype)

By the way, what do you think of the "classes", do you think it makes sense?

That is spooky because it has been a while since I checked on it and just decided to check it out the first time today.

Classes look fine. It depends on the context of the story/game though.

It's also kind of lame if I disable the editing or make it too difficult to contribute (registration, finishing the game, reviewed by a moderator), because it would kind of destroy its purpose. ...at this point, I could as well do a "read only" adventure
...i still prefer let people troll around at this moment ...even if it means restoring a backup regularly.

No I think its fine to have some speed bumps for griefers. Perhaps you can just implement registration + review by moderator? That should stamp out all griefing.