Today in its first title defense Alien Abduction was beaten by the challenger by Dark Archon - Invasion. Alien Abduction is one of the best Freeware games that can be had; and it will be sadly missed.

However, our new champion, Dark Archon – Invasion, is one of the best Shareware games you can find on the Net. Everyone please swing by Freelance Games (http://www.FreelanceGames.com) and welcome our new champion Dark Archon - Invasion.

... and what was the number of votes Sean to proclaim that whatever game "the best game you can find on the Net?" :D

...just wondering... ;)

PS Nothing personal against the game!!! Any game...

Originally posted by WildSnake
... and what was the number of votes Sean to proclaim that whatever game "the best game you can find on the Net?" :D

...just wondering... ;)

PS Nothing personal against the game!!! Any game...

Cool, I actually didn't think you were speaking to me anymore:

Dark Archon is the Freelance Games Best Independent Game based on our ladder system. I know if is not a perfect system; and over the coming months there will be many changes to the site and the ladder system.

Dark Archon - Invasion recieved 4 votes.
Alien Abducion received 2 votes.

The vote totals are low because people generaly do not vote; I can't really say why? I used to think it was because I lack of site traffic; but our site traffic has picked up quite a bit. Check out the Alexa detail reports on FreelanceGames. Furthermore, there was a poll posted on the Dexterity forum where only 1 person voted (no it wasn't me).

As fo the game itself; it is a good game. Are there better games; yes and many of them are working there way up the ladder. Your game is always welcome to be part of the ladder; just say the word?

I welcome your input; and of course my offer to do a review of your game is still open? I believe that you said last time no one would read it? Well that my friend is changing. Here is a comparison:

www.WildSnake.com

Reach Rank - 1 Week Average = 153,364
Page View Rank - 1 Week Average = 74,160
Weekly Average = (153,364 + 74,160) / 2 = 113,762

www.FreelanceGames.com

Reach Rank - 1 Week Average = 248,202
Page View Rank - 1 Week Average = 115,617
Weekly Average = (248,202 + 115,617) / 2 = 181,909

Oops! I didn't thought that our rating in Alexa so high. With our six terrible games. :D

And I was going to teach you how to cheat with traffic in Alexa... Looks like it is not actual for you any more :D

Games... Don't know. But I suppose they are very good. I never said anything backward at least. ;)

Yours,

Originally posted by WildSnake
With our six terrible games.


No one said your games were bad; their actaully pretty well done; probably some of the best pinball games available. Although, I have to admit that I am not a big pinball fan; but from what I can tell your games are generally pretty good.

Can you clarify the following line:

Originally posted by WildSnake
Games... Don't know. But I suppose they are very good. I never said anything backward at least. ;)

...clarify...

Yes, sure.

That looks like you were trying to defend that winning games. But I never did any attack on them.

I wasn't sure about the basement of your statement about "the best game on the NET". Because you based your opinon on 4 votes... Not your fault Sean - just you problem till your site will really go high enough to collect good amount of votes. Correct? Or I'm fired on your ignore list again? :)

> some of the best pinball games available...

Some? Some?! :eek:
Look guys. That Sean have started that again! What do you mean "some"? We are the greatest! You are fired onto my ignore list now!!! :mad:

I'm kidding really... :D

Perhaps people don’t vote because they don’t feel qualified. I for example checked out your site today for the first time and did not vote because I know nothing about either game.

Originally posted by MrPhil
Perhaps people don’t vote because they don’t feel qualified. I for example checked out your site today for the first time and did not vote because I know nothing about either game.

I am pretty sure that is part is part of reason people don't vote. I have been thinking for a long time to going to a model where the ranking is decided by either a small group or even myself.

However, this would of course place a bulls eye on my back from people who think their games are the greatest! Clearly, no one comes to mind here:rolleyes:

Sean, I bet you could really increase the number of votes if, by voting, you were entered into a prize draw. The prize could be a registration key from the winning game - surely the author would be willing to give one away ?
Just a thought,
Jason

Originally posted by Jason Colman
Sean, I bet you could really increase the number of votes if, by voting, you were entered into a prize draw. The prize could be a registration key from the winning game - surely the author would be willing to give one away ?
Just a thought,
Jason

There are defintely some authors that would be willing to throw in a game or two for extra exposure. The real problem is that as the site grows it is possible that people will see this as a opportunity to enhance there sales by cheating on the polls.

For example, if anyone with an email address can vote; you could try to fix the results by registering many times under different email addresses? Not sure if there is a viable solution to that problem?

Originally posted by Jason Colman
Sean, I bet you could really increase the number of votes if, by voting, you were entered into a prize draw.

That will increase the number of voters, but the results will be rendered meaningless since what you'll get is a large number of people that have never played either game simply voting in order to be entered into the contest.

- Roulette

Originally posted by Roulette
That will increase the number of voters, but the results will be rendered meaningless since what you'll get is a large number of people that have never played either game simply voting in order to be entered into the contest.

- Roulette

I agree; at least right now people don't vote because they haven't played the games.

> this would of course place a bulls eye on my back from people who think their games are the greatest! Clearly, no one comes to mind here

Still didn't realize that you should TRY to friend with developers?
Woff! I'm tied really.

Somebody else able to explain Sean how to become "respectale media" and get free drink from Nintendo? (E3 - press lineups- for guys who understand....)

There are defintely some authors that would be willing to throw in a game or two for extra exposure. The real problem is that as the site grows it is possible that people will see this as a opportunity to enhance there sales by cheating on the polls.

For example, if anyone with an email address can vote; you could try to fix the results by registering many times under different email addresses? Not sure if there is a viable solution to this problem?

Anyone have any ideas?

Ya, I brought this issue up before in another thread about low votes and how I can easily boost my own game up. But really, I doubt any developers would.

I was thinking of tracking IPs, but then that would be tough if someone is using dynamic IP? I'm no coder so I have no real input heh.

But I wouldn't mind giving away free copies of my game if any website asked me.

John,

I wouldn't mind giving away free copies of games; but I wouldn't want it linked to voting because it might encourage people to vote for games they haven't played. That said, I probably take you up on you offer for a free game at some point in the future; but I need to come up with some sort of margeting campaign that would be benificial to both of us.

Side Question: [How many hours on average does it take to make a low polygon textured model of say starship or space station]

I understand the theoretical problem of people voting for a game they haven't played. I don't understand why vote stuffing is a worry. I mean, what does the winning game actually win ? :) It looks to me like what you need now is a lot more traffic. I'd worry about the other stuff later.

Originally posted by Jason Colman
I understand the theoretical problem of people voting for a game they haven't played. I don't understand why vote stuffing is a worry. I mean, what does the winning game actually win ? :) It looks to me like what you need now is a lot more traffic. I'd worry about the other stuff later.

Interesting that you would say that today because we actually appeared in the Alexa top 100,000 today.

Me and my big mouth :) Ok, incentives to vote are definitely what you need :)

I think it is about conversion rate. People have to download both games and play them long enough to form an opinion and then return to the site and vote. I really wonder if the polls have any real effect on traffic or if people just come to the site to see a new game everyday?

Due to the way Alexa counts hits, being in the top 100,000 doesn't actually mean that you have good traffic. For example, I have a couple of websites that I run and I check their Alexa positions every two weeks. One gets 5-7x as much traffic as the other does. However they have rated at about the same place in Alexa for much of the last year and there have been two different times where my lower traffic site was listed above my higher traffic website. Only an example, but I don't put much stock in alexa beyond it being a fun thing to look at as I've seen their rankings being terribly incorrect.

The real question is how many visitors you are getting each day, how many page views per day, and where those page views are coming from.

You could always qualify votes as requiring the answer to a simple multiple choice question about something in the games. That'd invalidate most of the responses that were made by someone who'd never played both the games. Right now it's all about how good your screenshot is...

Cas :)

cyrus_zuo,

I would agree with you comment about Alexa; and in all honesty I would like to see more traffic cominng from gaming sites. At the moment, I am using AWStats and it doesn't work well for sites with a lot of different static pages. For example, the traffic that I get from Game Tunnel is spread accross hundreads of URL; so it is hard easy tell where the traffic comes from in many instances.

Note: Please don't misunderstand; I appreaciate the traffic recieved from Game Tunnel. I probably need to download my raw log files and use a better program.

What would you think if I went to a model where either I or someone I deligated decided the outcome of the polls? Would that improve or hurt the site?

@Cas,

Not sure I would agree; if that were the Cas there would be lots of votes. Also, I review the outcomes of every Poll for well sanity. "Future WildSnake Comment Here" .

Have a look at the ladder ranking; are there any games that you would disagree with there rank of the ranking (exclude your game because that wouldn't be fair). Note: The games with the whites box are still moving up the ladder.

I think that giving a free copy of the champion every moth is a good idea. People should register with email, and that should be enought, maybe I'm too naive.

Maybe developers should agree to this (giving a free copy if their game win) before submitting it, I don't think this should be a problem.

If the problem is that a developer could vote many times for his game, nothing prevents this right now, if you need a email to vote, this will make it more difficult than right now.

If the problem is that users vote without actually playing both games, well, I think that the majority of people will play both games, and these that don't will have little influence (as they will be few), too naive again?.

Fèlix
www.nurium.com

@Nurium Games

Do you want to give a free copy of the game away to everyone that voted for it?

Originally posted by Sean Doherty
@Nurium Games

Do you want to give a free copy of the game away to everyone that voted for it?

:eek: No!.

Maybe I haven't expressed myself well (my English is quite limited and every time I write something I'm never sure if I'm saying nonsense).

I mean: One copy of the winner game should be the price of a 'lottery' where everyone that voted that month will have a number (whatever game they voted).

Fèlix

That's right. If you want to get something really useful out of the site then it's valid email addresses, and people like to give these out when they stand a chance of winning something. I'm quite happy to donate a free copy of Alien Flux but then I'm in 4th place so no chance of that happening any time soon :P

Cas :)

In fact if there's something in return that Freelance Games could do for us developers for donating free games to give away as prizes then you could do a mailshot to all your members when we announce a new game on the site. Result! Everyone's happy.

Cas :)

@Nurium Games,

Ok, that sounds more reasonable; would you just do this for the championship match or all matches? Maybe the game be a different game every week because some games are freeware who wants to win a free verion of a Freeware game.


@Cas,

There are ladder polls for forth place as well should all polls have a free draw? Did you did agree with any of the current ranking? Do you think you can take Parp!?

I said a lottery with the winner game as price, maybe a lottery with 3 or 5 prices (the most voted games) would be even better.

Fèlix.
www.nurium.com

Choice would be best - after all, if you voted for the winner because you love it so much you ALREADY bought it, what good is it to win it? :)

Ok, that sounds more reasonable; would you just do this for the championship match or all matches?
2 or 3 or 5 or so prices, you decide the best way to choose the price games, developers should agree before submitting to the ladder.

Fèlix
www.nurium.com

@papillon,

I agree that the choice of 5 games would be best. Also, there is no point of winning a freeware game. So maybe that it what I will do; assuming people will donate games? Every week there will be a draw from the people who voted and the winner of the draw will be able to choose from five games?

How does that sound?

@Nurium Games,

I don't want the developers to have to agree; if they wish to vulunteer games that would be great; if not they just won't be featured in the prize section of the site.

The ladder is no good if it is only games that were willing to donate. It should be open to all; even...

I don't want the developers to have to agree
Fine for me, developers should choose if they want their game to be included in the prices list (in case it goes high enought).

... Why does windows hang when you have 8 applications opened and some unsaved data? ...

Fèlix
www.nurium.com

Sean - sounds good.
As for Parp - never played it so I can't say :)

Cas :)

Originally posted by Nurium Games
Fine for me, developers should choose if they want their game to be included in the prices list (in case it goes high enought).

... Why does windows hang when you have 8 applications opened and some unsaved data? ...

Fèlix
www.nurium.com

Fèlix,

Can you clarify what you mean; I don't understand?

Can you clarify what you mean; I don't understand?

When someone enters a game in the ladder he could be asked the following question:

-> Are you ok to give away a free copy of your game every x time (one month or so) while it is high enought in the ladder?

I would say yes.

Just an indea.

About windows hanging... nobody can understand that :D

@ Nurium Games,

I thought your windows hanging comment was in some way related to the Ladder? I generally don't have that problem; my machine is very stable because it was custom built from the ground up; and I constantly same my work; especially before I complile. Also, I keep the drivers as up to date as possible.