Mobotropolis

Simple Machines Forum supports SSO but you'll have to do some work to get it to look nice. Invision Power Board is probably the best of the older forum software packages (but that may be bias talking since I hosted my earliest games through here). I'm not sure about paying more for a forum than I do my entire hosting/game development package annually, however. I decided to use Vanilla for my pet project because it has a ton of modern features right out of the box without looking for add-ons or plug-ins, it's designed to be integrated into a website, and you can't beat Free on price.

In my eyes, nothing. A Pet Site is a website who's main objective is capturing/creating/breeding monsters. You usually have to do some matter of busy-work to earn money and items to take care of your acquired pets. It could be farming dailies. It could be playing mini-games. It could be quests or special events. All designed to get you coming back to the site and putting it into your routine. I noticed about ... 10 years ago that a certain Pet Site began to refer to itself as more of a Virtual World than a Pet Site. That may be because it was technically part of a larger's company suite of gaming sites, and on a corporate level they referred to all of the games as Virtual Worlds. Yet that type of terminology spread, and games seemed to shift towards attempting to provide an immersive experience for its players. Again, in my eyes, it's the same thing. The vast majority of games out there today technically qualify as being a Virtual World. They explain the circumstances of their world to the players to help them understand why they need to do the things they need to do to progress in the game. Even games that don't technically have a map for you to explore tend to have story and lore. It helps you understand the creator's artistic vision. It also gives hopefully entertaining reason for you to do busy-work for hours.

@Boltgreywing That is an interesting Rules Philosophy. I got (or am rather still getting) into it with someone on a certain Sim site about exactly this. They are adamant the game should have a Block/Ignore Feature because they dislike one annoying but still rule-abiding user who has a knack for derailing a thread. I explained that Block/Ignore would not only not solve this issue since said user can easily bait users who did not block them into derailing threads but it could do more harm than good with users blocking over any or no particular reason. I think intentionally ignoring someone (block-as-a-feature or not) can be just as toxic of behavior as demanding to be the center of attention. Either-or doesn't really promote healthy community growth. My response to them was simple. The game had a community that involved boards that were both open to the public, boards hidden behind a paywall with mostly adults, and boards that could be considered private as you can invite your friends and close them off to the general public. When posting on the public boards available to most users anyone whom the Moderation Team deems worthy of posting should be able to post. Should a user be too toxic/dangerous to keep on the public boards then it should ultimately be the Moderation Team/Game Owner's decision to remove them, not the users. And that should ultimately be done as a last resort for repeat offenders and/or users who are unlikely to change their behavior. I don't have a game currently but have owned and managed over a dozen games/communities in the last 15-20 years. I ultimately feel like the goal of a community should be to create a place where all of its users feel welcome and (hopefully) get along. A user generated block/ban list seems to get in the way of that.

I think there might be a misunderstanding? When I did the audit back in May I looked at over 200 different Pet/Sim Sites. I wasn't looking for all four criteria on all sites/games. Having just one of the four was a Pass. Your game Duelingpets initially failed the Test because the last news update was February 2017 which makes the game seem to be inactive/abandoned. Advice? Just update your News Page if you can. The first (and main) criteria I was looking for was a game that had updated since New Years 2018. It was five and a half months later when I did the first audit so that should be enough time to have at least one update. Since this was a "first impression" Test where I in many cases acted like a New Users I had to tell that the game had been updated without registering or signing in. How do I tell that? If it's not on the front page, I looked for the News or Forum. Many games presumably built with Mysdia failed the test because the News and/or Forum Pages were only accessible to Registered Users by default. Since so many games were failing the first three criteria I did another sweep while adding a fourth; looking for active users. More than two dozen people online would mean either the site was still being updated or offered something else that made people come back. Still. only 2-3 games met that criteria while failing the other three.

Hello. Can you tell us a bit more about your game and what you hope to accomplish?

Good Luck. This sounds like a great opportunity and I hope you find a good partner. Do you have any examples of projects you've already worked on? That may help people better understand what you can do.

Can you show some previews of the assets?

Either way can work depending on the mechanics of the game. Dying makes more sense and could potentially be more beneficial in a breeding game since your goal would be to breed the strongest/most ideal individuals possible. You'll quickly find yourself in a situation where you'll have more pets than you can manage which can cause decision fatigue. People may get discouraged by the work they have to do managing a horde of pets. Some Examples from Other Media: X is gone ... but left a parting gift. (Monster Rancher. In 3 in particular, they leave behind a booster for your next monster) It's a step down from 2 where your monster keels over on-screen and is found dead by you and your keeper. In 3, it's also possible for your monster to run away if you push it too hard. They may or may not come back. If they're gone for good, they leave nothing. X has retired and went to live in another part of the pond. (Magikarp Jump - Good Ending) You see them occasionally and have a post-game record, but they cannot train or compete anymore X is done for ... (Magikarp Jump - Bad Ending) They are actually dead. X has reincarnated. (Chao Garden - Good Ending) With enough care and reincarnation, your Chao can be reborn immortal X has been sent away. (Chao Garden) This is a way of culling Chao without abusing them to ensure they die and not reincarnate Pets that stay alive forever makes more sense in games where you train the strongest individual possible -- and training could require a considerable time and financial investment. People may not want to feel like their time and money were for naught when a pet they invested so much in dies. If not handled properly, it can discourage people from playing or continuing to play. I don't think the age of your target audience factors into the equation much. There's a growing understanding that children should understand the importance of life and significance of death from an early age -- and when handled tastefully it does not have to be a crushingly sad moment for them.

How would it work, mechanics-wise? I played Magikarp Jump (a barebones Clicker Fishing Virtual Pet Game) for about three months until I finally beat it. The main reason I kept at it was because it reminded me a lot of Monster Rancher; a beloved series that seems all-but-dead. You catch a fish and must raise/train it until it reaches its maximum potential. Like Monster Rancher, there is a chance your Magikarp can die depending on your actions. Mature Karp that can no longer train are retired so you have to finish a new Karp. When thinking of size for graphics I aim for x2 what I want the final size of the object to be. So if I choose 200x200 for the pet images I'd draw at 400x400.

@Boltgreywing I was doing some research in May in regards to design. Specifically, I was mulling over what should be on the front page of a game to create a good first impression. To consider that I looked at the front page of about ... 200-some games to see if I could see a pattern. Since there were so many games between the Wikipedia Page and the Game Directory I attempted to use some matter of criteria to narrow down the list. I decided to focus only on games that were still active. How I Defined " Active " - The game had to meet one of the following criteria in descending order: - Have a News Post released since New Years 2018 - Have a Forum with a post from a Staff Member since New Years 2018 - Have activity from the games' members that happened since New Years 2018 - Had over 25 active users when I checked the site Oh, and I had to be able to tell this without logging in. Things That Did Not Fool Mob - - Having a 2018 Copyright (you can code it that way) - Having Today's Date on the Front Page (you can code it that way) Things That Almost Fooled Mob - - I removed a game that, upon further inspection, appeared to have fake stats. Went to the same game twice on different days and the stats were the same. The results were ... actually pretty good. There were over 50 games that met the criteria.

Oh boy ... where to begin ... I'll count a Classic Game as a game released 10+ years ago (before 2008). I did most of my gaming between 2000-2010. Monster Rancher 3 You want a console monster raising/breeding sim? Here's a console monster raising/breeding sim. Grab a stack of CDs and unlock a champion ... or use one of the starters if that's your thing. Condition and train your monster to fight a series of progressively stronger opponents. Your monster ages and will do better/worse at training with age. They will also, inevitably, die which is where the " breeding " aspect comes in. A dead monster leaves behind a gem that can be used to pass on stats and characteristics to your next monster. Battling is more dynamic than your usual turn based monster sim and resembles more of a fighting game. You unlock new moves by exploring and breeding. Pokemon Puzzle League - Panel de Pon - Tetris Attack What it's called depends on where you're from and what system you're playing on. Panel de Pon was the original game (I think) which stared a fairy named Lip who needs to clear chain/combo-clear out blocks to generate enough magic to free her friends. When brought over to the West the game was reskinned with a Mario (Tetris Attack) and Pokemon (Puzzle League) theme. It's a fun quick game (a best 2 out of 3 game lasts about 5 minutes) to play with friends -- unless you're so outmatched that someone throws the cartridge out of the window (true story!). Pokemon Stadium 2 This is the best introduction to the series. For people with no interest in battling there's a Minigame Suite. For beginners who want to learn there's Earl's Pokemon Academy which caps off a lesson with a demonstrative battle to show your understanding of the course material. When you're ready you can head over to the Stadium and battle for real -- even if you don't have any Pokemon Games to import Pokemon from. There's even a " Battle Now " function for people who just want to jump into it. Final Fantasy VII There are many reasons this game tends to pop up on GOAT lists. I think it's because it manages to be a healthy mix of so many genres. You have a virtual world. You have a pet-raising/breeding sim. You have a mini-game carnival-like place. You have a battle arena. You have a climactic slap-fight on top of a death ray after escaping your public execution which you'll probably wonder how it's come to this -- and keep playing. Thanks to its popularity you'll probably know who some of the characters are and that this is a story of death and redemption, but I still think it's worth a play. Diddy Kong Racing Imagine Mario Kart, but instead of racing around the track to earn points you're thrown into a virtual world where you're going to be collecting a lot of stuff since, you know, this is a Rare game. You can also fly a plane (which is really fun) and a hovercraft (which is not-so-fun)! And there's still the Mario-Kart-Style Trophy Race which you must win to progress the story. Oh yeah. There's that, too. Mario Party 2 No " Gaming With Friends " session would be complete without the original Friendship Ender. Mario Party: The Second is perfectly playble by yourself but the real magic comes when you gather 'round three other soon-to-be-former friends and spend 20 Turns stealing Stars from each other. Sonic Shuffle " Hark! " You say. " Mario Party is too easy! " Well, there are cures for that. Sonic Shuffle was created by the same studio that made Mario Party 1-3 as a Dreamcast exclusive. As the name implies, it differs from Mario Party in that you use cards instead of dice for movement and to preform actions. Instead passing a space to pay for a Star you have to land on the target space to initiate a battle that you must win to acquire the Gemstone. There are also quests and events to complete. This game is known for having difficult CPUs as they can see and steal the cards from your hand and happen to be good at Minigames even on Easy. Ape Escape A gem from the Golden Age of 3D Platformers. This game came with a new-at-the-time Dualshock Controller that was required for play. Once you plugged it in and tested it out you'll figure out immediately why that's the case. Every button on the controller, even those you may not be aware are buttons (try pressing in the control sticks) serves a purpose. I consider this a Platformer/Stealth/Puzzle game since the most of monkeys will flee from you if they see or sense you so you have to think about how you're going to get close enough to catch them in your short-range net. Oh, and if you're a Pokemon Fan who wants a surreal experience try the PS2 sequel. You'll see what I mean. Spyro the Dragon The Spyro Series has taken an ... interesting turn in the last few years -- but now that the Toys to Life Trend seems to be over you'll get to experience this magic on the Nintendo Switch later this year. It's almost the same as Mario 64 except you are a -dragon-. You can breathe fire. You get to rampage through enemy villages. You can glide and even -fly- on some levels ... and he flies better than Mario! Sonic Adventure 2: Battle This is easily the game I've played the most on this list. There is a ton of stuff to do here. Like many of my other favorites it has a Raising/Breeding Sim with the Chao Garden. It's one of two three games that I played where mistreating your Chao has a negative impact on its development and the only one where it can result in perma-death. Sonic Mega Collection Plus / Sonic Gems ... or maybe Classic Sonic Games are more your thing. In the mid-2000s SEGA re-released the majority of the Sonic Games in two collections; one Sonic the Hedgehog - Sonic 3 and Knuckles and another with more obscure games released later. My favorite games from the collection including the before-mentioned are Sonic R, Sonic the Fighters, Get Blue Spheres, and Sonic Spinball. Klonoa Heroes: Legend of the Star Medal Probably the most obscure game on this list since it never made it out of Japan -- but there's a full translation and guide already out there. There wasn't back when I first played it. I went back and actually beat the game earlier this year. This game is considered a spinoff since it plays completely different than the rest of the games in this series and is more an ARPG. Or a visual novel since you take breaks from the action-y parts to read a little skit on most levels. Bust a Groove An odd game that might make for a fun afternoon. This is classified as a Rhythm/Fighting Game. You're given a chain of commands that you have to complete to the beat of the stage's music. The fighting aspect comes in that you can attack your opponent to stop their combos and solos and preform more complicated combinations to build strength. This game spawned two even more obscure sequels. Um Jammer Lammy The sequel to better-known Parappa the Rapper ... and he's even in this game! The Arcade/Story Mode is fairly short (about an hour for a beginner or thirty minutes when you're good) and can be played with (or against) friends for a fun afternoon. Super Puzzle Fighter II: Turbo The name is a joke. This is another competitive puzzle game that plays a bit differently than your typical Match 3. Sometimes known as " Gem Fighter " you use falling blocks to build either larger gems and/or stacks of gems that you break with special pieces called crashers. Also features many characters that may be familiar to Capcom Fans from the 90s and early 2000s. There's an " updated " version, but I actually prefer the version released in the 90s as it had more content. The Misadventures of Tron Bonne The prequel of Megaman Legends that might make you feel pretty awful about some of the stuff you can (and must) do. What's the fastest way to raise money to pay off a loanshark and free your family? You steal it, of course! The game gives you the option to raise money through a variety of tasks and you can skip jobs that you either don't like or aren't prepared for. It's also a Raising Sim since Tron must upgrade her mech and train her Serbot helpers to improve their preformance and usefulness on missions.

Ah. That's odd. Last month I did an audit of active games using two lists; the wiki and the games list here. It looks like the Game List is gone. Your site is over here, but I did not initially mark it as active because it failed the simple four-prong test I was using.

There are a few people looking for help here. I think that it's fine to be indecisive about your career trajectory even as you prepare to go to college. The endgame to your time in school should be to get a degree. Once you have that you'll have the opportunity to do many things. You may even be able to apply your degree towards jobs that are outside of your field of study. Since it's fairly common for people to change their career paths these days people won't bat a lash if you get a degree in, say, Finance but decide to pursue a career in Digital Media. One thing I do when I desire knowledge or perhaps some advice is read. I'm at the point where I read 3-4 books every two weeks about various subjects. If I lived remotely close to a book store I'd buy/read more, but them's the breaks. When it comes to Passion the book I found most insightful is So Good They Can't Ignore You. Now, I wouldn't go as far as to say that " Follow Your Passion " is a myth. I knew what I wanted to do with my life pretty much the moment I made my first Angelfire web site. I will say that knowing HTML/CSS and Programming Theory before I formally took those classes not only made my time in college easier but made me a top student. Acquiring skills early and getting good at what I planned to do gave me a competitive edge. I think, in ways, it has also made me happier knowing what I do and do well. That's why I suggest that you don't wait to dive into making a site or helping on a site. The sooner you start, the better.

Hello, and welcome. Odds are good that you have a long road ahead of you and plenty of time to find the answer to " who am I "? The best thing you can do to find the answer would be to Try. Pretty much everything. Then you should, perhaps, take note of the things that you enjoy doing. If you're not comfortable and/or financially prepared to dabble around with your own site perhaps you would be willing to help out one of the current game owners. There are plenty of people looking for help around the Network. You say that writing is your strongest skill but time can also be valuable. Perhaps you can find a game owner who might be willing to train you to take over a task and free up some time for them to work on other things.

Hello! I think the most important thing to ask yourself is What do you want to do? You seem to be uncertain of your skillset. There are a lot of roles you can take on as the owner of your own site or even a contributior to another site. A manager/content creator in particular can wear many hats. One exercise I found that helps when it comes to narrowing down what you might be passionate about is the following: Grab a piece of paper and make three columns - What I Like to Do What I Can Do What I Can't Do Your goals should be to make Column 3 as small as possible by adding things to Columns 1 and 2. Once you have 3-5 things in Columns 1 and 2 it's time to get your feet wet. You say you're learning HTML so I'm guessing you're starting completely from scratch as a coder. I'd recommend grabbing some hosting so you can start to play around. I learn a lot faster when I'm building things I'll actually use. If you're not sure where to start with that and don't want to pay for a private server (I don't think that's necessary for a beginner) try Neocities. You can't have a Database but you shouldn't need one to practice HTML/CSS/JavaScript.

1. Google.com Even weighing the good (it is a suite of free tools you can access anywhere) and bad (it has too much control over what people see on the Internet) things about Google I can't deny that it offers some of the best services out there. Drive and the Docs Suite are almost indespensible. 2. Neopets.com Despite how bad things have gotten and how hopeless things seem to be in terms of even routine updates -- this is still one of three websites I visit daily. I've been playing on and off for 15 years and think part of the appeal is that there is still so much to do here if you can get it to work. 3. KnowYourMeme.com (Proceed with Caution!) Like to think of this as an " Internet News " site. Internet Culture evolves at a fast pace with things and sayings seeming to change every month or so. This can be a decent place to look up what your friends might be talking about. I say " Proceed with Caution " but they're actually quite good at letting you know the content on a page might not be suitable for all ages. I'm trying to strike a balance between my internet consumption and working (both online and off) which means that I kicked a bunch of social sites to the curb. I decided to only go on Twitch on the weekends and Youtube at night after I get back from work ... but feel the latter can be cut even further. Since I spend most of my time on Youtube listening to music I've been dabbling in Internet Radio. Rainwave, a semi-user request Video Game Radio Station, is one of my favorite Radio Channels for the moment. I turn this on when it's time to work.

I haven't bought anything before and I'm also seeing just the Download Button. What I'm seeing