Topic, Game "BLockoban"

  Chris, please go through the msg board and you will find your answer. Whatever you feel about the ratings there are two things more important than that (in the game). First is how much fun you personally have when creating a level and the second is that levels are primarily evaluated by the admins (that is on a more objective basis). People have different criteria when evaluating a level and you have to respect that, not necessarily understand it, but just respect it. I have bad levels myself (not attractive to the majority) which I enjoyed creating and I have others also rejected, as i believe most of the designers do. My point is that rating is just a measure (subjective at the moment since not all players actually rate) to find out among all different types of levels, difficulties, designs what ppl generally like and not whether you should continue making levels or not. Its something like your football club. It may not produce the best football, but in your eyes it may be the only one and you still support it even if it loses all the time. You may feel disappointment, frustration but you stick to it. Eventually things will come round (sun always rises at the end even after rough nights) and you will feel much better you stood up to the difficulties. Again chris, I believe you should first try to please yourself and then the others. Rating is not that important if it gets into your head.

  THAT is the best idea I've seen xD
1 Rating system for quality and design etc. etc.
and 1 for Difficulty :D

  U know, I think we should make seperate ratings for lvl rating and diffuculty rating

  The only reason i don't make many levels here is because people will give low ratings based on the difficulty.

  that was the 20th century that's why

  They call it World War I and World War II, so why should we be more creative here?!

  ask JP it's on a website

  What happened to Jump Gear 1?

  you have a point, it's like making JG3. it makes JG2 seem obsolete compared to it. it needs a creative name, I know JP tries hard but it's the truth.

  I agree I don't like blockoban 2 being called that either, I really do not like that game. And it does imply there is something needed in the original, but I am also grateful JP made this awesome game and its his by right so...

  or Slideoban :D But i think Blockoban 2 is okay :)

  or DropoBan :D

  To be fair I really don't think BB2 should be called BlockoBan. They are totally different games, different strategy and kind of misleads ppl thinking BB is out-of-date, old fashioned, which of course is not true. I would suggest something like POPoBAN.

P.S. Sorry you have to read all this oldmanrob. I am the one to blame (at least for most of it)...hehe

  After weeks spent on BB2 I'm back to the original and so surprised that the blocks don't pop.
PS lot to read here.

  Just out of curiosity guys for the rating system. Since smn's weighting power changes as he earns EXP pts, do the ratings - for each level that he has rated in the past - change along with his weighting power or does he have to go back to levels and rerate. My guess is that the second applies which ultimately means every now and then we have to visit old levels. And a chain reaction begins....
It may be trivial, not worth much discussion, but I was so worried you guys are so quiet today that I decided to give you some food for thought. That is if you are hungry...hehe

  Great comments, guys. Like you say, solving the puzzles is fun, but it's much more fun to optimize your solutions. That's where you really learn to play the game and it's what gives the most satisfaction (for me anyways) when you understand strategies that you can use to beat any of the levels.

  chris, let me echo ToughMan's remarks. Working a level, is just that. There are no fireworks to celebrate a completed level as in Super Mario. And even when completed the score can be way off. For me, that is where the fun starts. When you find a solution, or just know there is one, dig in and look for the lowest score. BB is like any sport. The more you work at it the better your moves are. Even the pros miss or fail at times. The more you play the more you will understand the blocks and groups and how they react. You don't just have 120 levels to go, you have finished 127. Myself, I still have levels to solve and continue to get beaten on my own designs. So to you, stay with us, we do need everyone of the players out there. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with next.

P.S. I still haven't been able to solve Never Give Up!!!!!

  chris, don't get disappointed. The fun in the game is that you need to work through a solution as if you were playing chess, stratego, pacman etc with unlimited lives and time. Once you find a good way to get it done [even if, at first, it takes longer than you originally believed and with multiple restarts] you may then try for a better solution. I would suggest strarting from the easier levels and once you get the feel of the game - trust me you will - you will be able to cope with harder levels and think ahead at least 5+ moves. Be patient, think ahead and give it a (many) shot(s). And i don't mean drinking shots...lol. However, IMO, the best way to understand blocks and how they move is to try it on a 'CREATE A LEVEL' board where you can actually play around with different formations. But in no case should you give up. We need all the players who eventually in their own way contribute to improving this game.

P.S. I also noticed you are very experienced player in the bonus level so I am sure most of the above are pretty familiar to you. Nevertheless, my one and only point/advice here is: Persistence. Just follow your own well designed creations named 'Think It Through'!!!! On my part i promise i dedicate a level to you called 'Never Give Up'.

  If one posts 'Fantastic! 5/5' on each level, you wouldn't soon even take him serious anymore, and just ignore it ;)

  I just rate every level I play based on the fun I had solving it, if one guy made a lot of terrible levels I probably gave him a lot of 1/5 but I did comment everytime, also if someone made a lot of good levels I gave 5/5 and generally commented also. I have no doubt you are right Toughman, this established some people as enemies and as friends which lowered my overall rating power, certainly this is just funny and not something to worry about. = ) I feel negative critiquing is just as important as positive.

  man 247 officials, i have 120 more lvls left, thats a lot; i'm about to give up too

oh and congrats murat, toughman, and oldmtnguy for all the great lvls, but i cannot solve either one of them. it would be nice to have a little hint to help me get started.

  Aw well, I guess we all have our ups and downs and at this moment i think Jyxz is definitely in his ups (unless he got hacked too by a Good Guy....lol).

  Shiro has lower RP than level too (lvl 40 but 28 rating power, due he got hacked once, and got rating power dimished).

I guess JP has dimished Jyxz RP manually when Jyxz came (as he were commenting all levels he played and very negative on some).

Who knows...

  No need to take this seriously Elizea. I was only kidding.

P.S. i guess though rating power is +-10/+-20 from our 'Level' as J and I have the same level (18) but differ on the power.

  Usually the rating power is +10/+20 from your 'level'.

  I agrre with Jyxz too!

PS, 1000th comment!

  Hey Jyxz, since you mentioned it, I've done some thinking and reached the conclusion that I am your friend!!! Rating power is determined by EXP points, registration date and a 'secret algorithm' determining whether you rate unfairly or boost friends. EXP points arise from msgs, creations, etc. Comparing the two of us we both have same EXP points (2179 vs 2138), you have more accepted levels, let alone 1 official, you are 6 months older than me as per the registration date and still your power is 10 vs 28 of mine. The only variable parameter here is the 'secret algorithm' and since I could never think you would be rating unfairly...I can only draw the conclusion that you just boost friends. In that sense thnx for considering me your friend....hehe. Don't get me wrong guys. I wasn't bragging and definitely i wasn't implying anything for Jyxz. I really repsect J (hope you know that by now) and appreciate his great contribution to the game. I am just in a good mood and wanted to be a bit humorous. After all you all know i don't care about rating. I just love playing BB. If by any chance msg is removed i'll understand.

  I agree with you, Jyxz. I fell a lot in the ranking of designers.

  All this talk of rating, I think we are asking too much off JP, it really is not a big deal... I mean I didn't realize it until recently, but I have one of the lowest rating powers of any blockoban user... doesn't matter. The only suggestion I think is rather cool is Toughman's that you can't rate a level unless you solve it. It does seem kinda weird someone who doesn't even play blockoban can just give someone else a 1/5 and have it count for 6x as many votes as someone who has solved every level = ).

  JP you could make it so that you can't rate low levels if you don't comment too (and for example set it show on comments how much he rated the level).

And this should be the same for rating high.