ID:132488
 Sep 22 2010, 5:37 pm
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After reading a thread that Aegon had posted, it got me to wondering. Why has my game not been showing up on the game list, or even in search list without having to do the advanced options? The game belongs to a guild and is downloadable, and has been hosted recently. And yet, the only way I can find it is to do a search and then select "Include unavailable" and then out of the 11 published, I have to click on the 93 total button and then look through 3 list of games to find my own.
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Sep 22 2010, 9:56 pm
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Schnitzelnagler
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It might help if you actually included a hint as to what game you're referring to (a link to the hub).
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Yeah but making you guys guess it so much more fun! :P
http://www.byond.com/games/RisingPhoenixProductions/ CharmedTheRequiem It used to show up closer to the first page, but now it is hidden behind all the other games, and as I was testing it last night, even when it was hosted, the game didnt show up on the hub or the pager, nor did it show up when the option in the advanced search menu for showing only the online games, was clicked. | |
Moussiffer wrote:
Yeah but making you guys guess it so much more fun! :P I don't know why it wouldn't show up in the pager; if the game had the wrong hub path set that would make sense though. You would however have to include unpublished games to see your listing on the website, because it is not in any Members' top 10 favorites. It does show up if you look for unpublished and unavailable games in the advanced search. (I axed your broken download URL, which in fact wasn't a URL at all. I'll be looking into website changes to keep that kind of thing from making the game appear downloadable when it isn't.) The pager should be showing your game as long as you're viewing players who are in it, whose location is not private, and the game's hub path and hub password are both correct. Presently I see no indication of the game being live. Lummox JR | |
So let me get this straight... In order for me to get my game to show up in the main listing of games, I need to have a guild accept my game (Which I did), a member list it in there top 10 favorites,and tt has to be downloadable.
And until that happens, my game when hosted live, wont show up on the hub unless going through ridiculous steps to find it, and searching through multiple pages, unless they know the full name of the game. And even then, if they choose to watch the game, it wont show up on the pager, or on the bar at the top of the BYOND web page, where watched games appear, meaning that the only way people will actually know if my game is being hosted live, is if they are checking other people on there pager in the hopes that someone else they have added is playing at the time. or the follow the ridiculous steps to have to search through the web site? No one finds this a little over the top? Hell, I might as well become a member make my own guild put my game in my guild and then put my game in the top 10 spot on my member account. I don't understand the significant of the gaming needing to be downloadable. What if we don't want others to host our game? | |
I'm pretty sure it has to be in a guild OR a member's top 10
And it has to be downloadable OR online | |
Well that doesn't make any sense, because my game showed yup as downloadable, but it also was hosted live and was part of a guild and it still didn't show up in the main listings.
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I'm pretty sure it has to be listed in one of the "official" guilds, not just any guild. Though that might not be the case considering the member ranking requirement.
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Okay well it is also in the top 10 of non-official guilds as well.
http://www.byond.com/members/Bb157 I am ranked number 3 | |
Moussiffer wrote:
So let me get this straight... In order for me to get my game to show up in the main listing of games, I need to have a guild accept my game (Which I did), a member list it in there top 10 favorites,and tt has to be downloadable. Not exactly. The guild listing isn't that relevant. It does have to be in a Member's top 10 favorites to count as published, and it has to be either downloadable or live to count as available. (I think currently we're not using a grace period on "live" status, but depending on how the new search stuff plays out we might restore a short one so that games that are hosted fairly regularly still show up.) And until that happens, my game when hosted live, wont show up on the hub unless going through ridiculous steps to find it, and searching through multiple pages, unless they know the full name of the game. And even then, if they choose to watch the game, it wont show up on the pager, or on the bar at the top of the BYOND web page, where watched games appear, meaning that the only way people will actually know if my game is being hosted live, is if they are checking other people on there pager in the hopes that someone else they have added is playing at the time. or the follow the ridiculous steps to have to search through the web site? If they watch the game it should show up on the pager when it's live. I don't know why that isn't happening, but it's a separate issue from published or available status. Unless a game has been suppressed, it should always show up on the pager when it's live and publicly hosted. The fact that it's not could be a code issue. I notice the key that owns the game has a period at the end of it, but there is no extra period in the hub path. The hub path is "RisingPhoenixProductions.CharmedTheRequiem", so if that isn't set correctly in the code then that's the problem. If the game is both published and available it will show up readily in the main search page. Otherwise it will be found in the advanced search. In our new search concept we're working on, some of this stuff may change. No one finds this a little over the top? Hell, I might as well become a member make my own guild put my game in my guild and then put my game in the top 10 spot on my member account. I don't understand the significant of the gaming needing to be downloadable. What if we don't want others to host our game? Downloadability isn't important; it just has to be available to play. If your game isn't playable, why would it be beneficial to a user for them to find it in a generic search? I imagine that would be pretty frustrating. (Almost as frustrating as giving someone the benefit of the doubt that they weren't trying to use an exploit to fake availablilty, only to find that after correcting it for them they had changed the info back. Either the game is downloadable or it isn't.) As for becoming a Member to put the game in your own favorites--yes, you do have that option. That would indeed give your game default published status. Lummox JR | |
Moussiffer wrote:
Well I am now ranked number 3 in a members favorite games, And it still isn't showing up. BYOND ranks are recalculated on a periodic basis, and that's what the search engine uses. I forget which of our updates does that, if it's hourly or daily, but it isn't immediate. Lummox JR | |
If the game isn't hosted at the moment but could be hosted soon, I would think that the benefit would be that if the game has a forum or a website, players of the game would be able to find the hub and then easily access the forums or the website to find out information about the game, such as why it is still down, when it will be back up, if the game needs a host, etc. Or if new players want to find the game and add it to there favorites or watched list for when it comes back online.
So now, The game is not showing up as downloadable, but it is in a guild and it is also ranked number 3 by a member. So If I host my game live now, it should show up in the main listings, as long as the hub path is correct which from what I have seen, it is. world | |
Your game still shows as unranked because that hasn't updated yet, so it won't show up in the main published listings until the ranks are recalculated. Once that happens you should be all set. The path looks correct, so the game ought to appear on the pager. If it doesn't, that's another issue we'll want to explore.
The published/avialable stuff is in flux a little bit because the new search we're working out might mitigate the need for some of this stuff. For availability there may or may not be a grace period restored; I like the idea of one, but again that has to be balanced against players being able to find something they can actually play, because no one wants to look for games only to find game after game they can't play right now. Lummox JR | |
Lummox JR wrote:
For availability there may or may not be a grace period restored; I like the idea of one, but again that has to be balanced against players being able to find something they can actually play, because no one wants to look for games only to find game after game they can't play right now. I've requested multiple times that the "last online" date/time be displayed on the hub. Information which you've said is readily available, but just not displayed. It seems like this could work well in combination with a 24 hour grace period of sorts. | |