Topic, Game "BLockoban"

  Thanks TIMU and OMR for answering and special thanks to OMR for preparing that list. I already have it and its extremely helpful but this is a mitigation to the problem. It doesn't really solve it, i mean within the community. It requires OMR or anyone else to keep updating the list (including any recent changes to older levels) and keep distributing to everyone which as you understand is, the least, painful and time consuming whereas an addition of the category to any level's info would just be sufficient. As for the 10 levels at the homepage search it really is better than 5 but again we may reach a point (if not yet there) when thousands of levels are created and 10 won't be enough.

Coming back to each level's info, I am just posting an older thought - extensively debated within the community (I believe with Elizea, Simon, OMG, Jyxz and others) - where the key info that should appear (when the mouse is on the level's little square)in every level would be the following:
1) Status of Level (Accepted, to be edited, rejected, etc)
2) Designer
3) Category
4) Rating
5) Current Highscore
6) Your Score (to compare each time with the current HS
7) and a new item called 'Not Yet Rated by You' which will help a lot of designers getting their levels rated
I remember it was extremely difficult to code all this information but is there any progress (probably a new software or something).

Regards.

  1) you can ask for my excel list. it was lot of work so im pleased if many people can take profit of it.

  1) It seems like that it's not possible to find category in a easier way, but look at the color of the C icon can help you identify its category.
Green: hard
Red: medium
Black: easy
Blue: kids
BTW, oldmanrob made a category list, you can get it by sending your e-mail to oldmanrob's inbox :)

2) The homepage's search can find 10 levels, but its result is by the game's publish date, form old to new, so it means it's easier to find more bb levels.

  Hi guys. I have two questions which may be naive and I apologize beforehand if there are obvious answers to them which I am not aware of.
1) Is there an easy way to identify a level's Category or do you need to find it in the 'Showing Level' window amongst over 6000 levels?. I would expect that when you type a certain level on the quick search section the level's info would state its category (I was not able to find the category for a specific level in order to respond to a question put by my friend OMG). Have I missed that?

2) Is there a way to extend the Quick Search section to allow for more than 5 findings? There are levels you want to re-play but not be able to find them (especially when you don't really recall the exact name but part of it) because they do not appear in the findings.

Thanks in advance guys.

  Same for me with Puzzle it^^

  you guys probably don't care. but if you change the category you give me a lot of work to do with the packs. please don't do it too often.

  I hope I still retain originality even with all those levels...

  there are people still overusing concepts but in a different way i think.

  This game is just amazing! There are over 6000 levels, and people still create original levels!

  @bbdest, I create levels better than I complete levels.

  There are only two of my levels I didn't complete.

Getting Along (Puzzle It)
I made this level, but I was really close to completing it, never did it though. Then I asked the community and they did it, so I uploaded it.

Merging (Puzzle It)
I did this in test mode, but I never managed to complete it again...

edit: Oh, I thought this is the Puzzle It topic xD

  Pig never beats his own levels, it seems like.

  I had like 2 in puzzle it at the same time.

  Lol, why did you upload it when you couldn't beat it? :P

  That's fun! My own level is in Best Levels You haven't scored on

  It is my opinion that all levels should be placed in the proper category. The difficulty on a level is sometimes hard to judge because we all have different interpretations of difficulty and different preferences and skill sets. I change the difficulty of levels if I feel they are in the wrong category but I don't always post a message. In fact some of the levels accepted today had their categories changed. In the past, if someone thought level was in the wrong category they posted a message on the level and it was reviewed. The level of a category can be changed with a single click of the mouse, so if anyone feels that level is in the wrong category all you need to do is let me know and I would be glad to take another look at it.

  I do sometimes change the cathegory of a PI level before accepting it, and I post a message on the level to see whether there's any disagreement or not.

  Congratz Blockoban! 800000 plays!

And i was the one that got it ;)

  I agree with Simon, although I also agree with omr.

I think a level can be in the "fitting" category and even one category harder.

When a level is 2 categories (or even more) harder or a category easier, I'd change it.

  I think levels placed on a category too high, is not bad. When people will play the medium and get an actually easy level, it's some pause. In the other hand a level placed in the category too low, it could be frustrating.

  there is something i would like to discuss here: the categories. in the last days some very easy level that imo should be in the category kids has been got the category easy or even medium. now my question. shouldn't the admins change the category when this happens. i know it would be a duty more for you, omg. and probably one you would not like to have. what do you think about outi it? and what do the comunity
think about this situation?

edit: i read your message on Have to go (BLockoban). so it's something you do sometimes, why not more often?

  Only 2 more official levels!

  Thanks to Elizea, gameinsky and Simon for the kind words, and to all of you site members for your support over the years. As an administrator, sometimes this job can be frustrating. at times I have been told that I am too critical, slow, self absorbed or dictator like. I have just passed my third year anniversary as an administrator and between playing levels and evaluating them have put in thousands of hours of time on this site. The great majority of these hours have been fulfilling and fun, but occasionally metered with some periods of frustration. I hope that I have succeeded in keeping this game interesting and enjoyable. And intend to keep participating as long as I am able.

edit: And thanks to you designers, for the recent flood of new levels. I am trying to get to them and catch up as quickly as possible.

  'as forgotten just like the rest of BL' I think there are more games that bursts with activity, but yeah OMG does a fantastic job here!

  Agreed with Elizea.
Admins happen to make mistakes (they're human after all), but it's indeed not always easy to judge a level.
however, respect your admins even when they do that, it's after all a volunteer job. OMG could easily bail on the game and then it would be as forgotten just like the rest of bonuslevel atm. But he isn't, he stays here and makes sure that blockoban, as his responsibility, still bursts with life. This easily makes OMG stand out as one of the better admins.

  Ehm hey everyone. I've been watching this discussion of where goes the line of acceptable and not-acceptable level for few days now.

The thing is, any level that gets accepted gets to the front page. It's not just "well, some people might find it fun". I'd like to point out, that if I ever saw a level I didn't find acceptable in any game, but knew some of the more hardcore fans of the game would like to see, I'd reject them and comment them. That way the level doesn't end up on front page but anyone who plays the game on a regular basis will find the level (of course you wouldn't be able to save your score, but still).

Tho, it is the admins choice in the end. While anyone can express their opinion about the level, there are different ways to do so. There is a difference between "This level isn't really good imo" and "Why would you accept this horrible level?!". As long as the discussion is kept polite and non-offensive, there is no reason to not have it on a public topic.

Also anyone who hasn't evaluated levels has no idea how hard it is. You might think it's easy to say what level is acceptable what isn't, but it's not. It's very easy to misjudge a level and just in general to draw a line between acceptable and non-acceptable levels.

I'd also like to thank everyone making levels for their work. It really makes me happy to see how active the Blockoban community is, even my activity here has decreased significantly. Also my thanks to OMG who has been spending a part of his free time evaluating levels here for so long (: You are awesome.

  i did it manually and i don't know how to put it online. i send you a pm.

  Oldmanrob, you made that excel list, have you done it manually or with some javascript? Could you possibly put it online?(with dropbox or such things)

  i'm at bonuslevel to have fun with. if i would go upset about the stuff here i would not came. some levels are unsatisfying, of course there are some but the majority aren't. i play "tedious" levels as hsf and have fun if i got the first place. i spent hours doing the packs and the excel list. but i had fun doing it. there are lot of unpleasant out there in the real world. so stop complaining about this little garden of virtual delights.

  The big difference between levels here and in an actual game is that levels have to be played one by one; not completing a previous level will make you unable to progress. Here, all of the accepted levels are optional.
You don't have to play them. the official levels are not allowed to be bad because they're technically the main campaign of the game.
Improving on your levels is needed of course, but you have to look it more on a user-standpoint than a global standpoint. If the first level of a user is mediocre at best, I would still accept him but tell him how to improve. If he makes his second level just as mediocre I will reject/to be edited it tho.
The only two exceptions to it would be if the user has made a decent amount of levels (at least ten) or if the concept has been done a lot. (As an admin on RT, I've seen so many Super Mario Brothers levels that I barely accept any.)

Of course if a level is bad or tedious then it shouldn't be accepted, but such things are entirely subjective and it feels like this argument is going nowhere.