Topic, Game "BLockoban"

  I've come back and to see you GIS with that is something we've all been waiting for, a new level 2. You deserve it! :)

  The advantage of a second pack is that oldmntnguy can also edit it, which means he could easily moderate the pack as well.

  Yes the pack is a good idea. And from the levels in the pack we can vote the official offical level no. 250.

  Having the new official as well as the extra officials pack are good ideas IMO.

And yeah Bump Me Out was a great one SM, good call :)

  I'm looking for a level that has everything of a good level, nice design, clever concept and doesn't require too many moves (about 50 max). It's going to take a while to finally settle on a level, but we have all the time in the world for that!

[edit]
I spoke about it with Elizea and he brought me onto an idea:
If we just make a second pack off officials (it will be a bit harder to access because there would be no separate tab for it) that way we can add as many as we want and consider it an extension of the officials.

  My level Bump me out (BLockoban) had at least 2 votes.

  Seeing as I've designed about a quarter of the levels for this game, figured I should weigh in... lol.

The officials debate has always been a tricky one. Undeniably, level quality has improved drastically on the whole (think new designers such as Murat, Monty, Simon, TM, and so many others), and very few of them have officials here when some of their levels clearly deserve the distinction. Look at levels like Crosshairs (BLockoban) compared to Collapse (BLockoban), Seal the Envelope (BLockoban), or Little Tactic (BLockoban). However, there's the counter-argument of how deleting old levels basically means that people spent time improving their scores for [almost] nothing.

I think the idea of adding a 250th level is objectively good, though. As I've designed more levels than I've played, it's hard for me to choose my favorites (I do really like Collapse (BLockoban) and Beacon (BLockoban)), so I'll just post a few of mine that I've really enjoyed creating and playing.

Overlap (BLockoban)
Overlap 3 (BLockoban)
Thin Transfer (BLockoban)
Nothing to Lose (BLockoban)
Red Manuever (BLockoban)
Stand And Fight! (BLockoban)
Fusion Chamber (BLockoban)
Tails (BLockoban)
Cross-Street (BLockoban)
Orbits Enclosed (BLockoban)
Hall of Fame (BLockoban)
Toll Booth (BLockoban)
Little Ambassadors (BLockoban)
Break the Chain (BLockoban)
Sky Tiger 2-Remnants (BLockoban)
The Trick (BLockoban) <--(I know it looks easy, but I've stumped so many people on the mobile with this one!)
Rough Construction (BLockoban)
Little Pyramid (BLockoban)
Slippery Containment (BLockoban)
Blue Column 2 (BLockoban)
Complex Circle (BLockoban)

And of course, a notorious one for me because of the lack of scores (and I love the design),
White Key (BLockoban)

There are others, too, but A: I don't want to make too long of a post and B: I don't remember them all... ;P

Even if these aren't the best levels, hopefully they at least remind people of ones they like. I know dingdong's Fission Chamber spinoffs of Fusion Chamber were very fun, for one.

  Keep the officials as they are. They are the core of the game. Each level and style serves to teach and challenge. They could be added to, but only if truly unique, multiple solutions...all that makes certain levels fun and challenging. That said I think that if there is a level that is felt should be official let it be said and if enough people agree/feel the same way go for it.
All the best to you gameinsky.

  I didn't even think of the category highscores.
Yeah, I think it's best to do what Simon said. Turn the nasty 249 official levels into a nice round 250 and maybe move some of the misplaced ones, but that being about it.

  I agree with Simon, I don't think removing official levels is a good idea. People would lose their official levels and the scores would be totally messed up, because they won't get updated for every user in the score tab, especially because many of them will never return to the site.
We had a similar situation in Path 4 Mouse when adding the Tutorial category and moving some Easy levels into it. The scores there are still wrong.

  What about just one official, to make that ugly 249 into 250. But I wouldn't remove officials.

  Thanks Toughman.
I agree with most of what you said, and would more than gladly kick out some of the more outdated officials.
However, it's still JP's game and I am unsure on his thoughts about removing some of the levels.

I reckon we could ask him his thoughts on that matter, and if he is ok with it, we can rebuild the officials from scratch.
I would like to hear more opinions from more people before settling on a plan.

Officials serve two main purposes on this site. First of all, like you said, they're the main campaign. The first levels that people will play will be those. And it's important that they're good to give a good first impression.
On the other side: they are what kept the site going for a long time. A lot of people created levels in the hopes of one day getting an official. Or a dozen, or maybe even a hundred. (Elizea and Gundu have achieved that feat) So having a steady inflow of officials raises the activity of the site.
Blockoban doesn't need it as much, but I agree with starting from scratch with the officials. Whilst still keeping some of them.

There is one game that needs a more severe reconsideration of officials and that's Rolling Turtle (the difference is staggering, levels that would be immediately rejected nowadays are official)

If enough people want that in Blockoban, I could ask JP And then we could start making a list of levels.

  Congrats GiS for your title! Well deserved! Now, as to your suggestion about new officials (and especially the frequency of adding new officials ie one per month) I have to admit that ta first glance I am extremely sceptic about it. Unless one rearranges the officials (that is remove more old ones before adding fewer new ones) simply adding new levels defeats the purpose of having the officials. Officials, in my mind, are meant to attract new players and are kind of (or should be) used as a game teaser. In that sense new members will be willing to try out the official category, score some points, try all sort of difficulty levels before actually being able to create new levels and contribute from another aspect to the game. Having said that, imagine someone that has new ideas trying to first beat 700levels before being able to create one on its own. I think official levels should not exceed 150 in any game but I am open to different views. In any event, I think Blockoban, more than any other game of this community, needs to reconsider/reevaluate its official levels from scratch. I know it is painful but many levels have become extremely old, obsolete (for official not per se) and do not provide any real challenge. Having said that it would be totally inappropriate to pick a level from more than 7000 to become official from the top of my head (that is without do some serious research which may take at least a month).

Again, nice job GiS! I am usre you will stand up to occasion and meet the needs of this community! I will do my best to assist you in any way possible!

  If I had to pick a new official, I would choose To the Walls (BLockoban) and put it between Maize (BLockoban) and Go through (BLockoban) (116 and 117).

  Greetings everyone from the Blockoban community.

I write you this message because I know that not everyone here frequents the entire website so I figured it would be easier to just say it here. Some of you might have already noticed the new shiny red G next to my name (if it doesn't show up do a hard refresh, hold ctrl while you press F5).
This means I now have the power to add, remove and move official levels in all games (except for PuzzleIt, but Simon is there for that).

The privilege of giving me the power of making new officials was given to me mostly to keep the site going. Since the dream of having official levels was what kept the site flowing.
And I know that Blockoban doesn't need it as much, since the friendly competitive drive its community is enough to keep the game flowing.
Now Blockoban already has a lot of officials (249!). On top of that JP has asked me to only make a new official every so often (once a month). Seeing a new official will still be a rare sight. I will also NOT use my power to remove any officials thus keeping the scores intact.

Since puzzle games were never my strong point I would like to ask for help from the Blockoban community in deciding which shall be the lucky 250th official level (and deciding a position).

If you wish to speak to me directly you can usually find me on this chat (word is a clickable link) whenever I am online. Just type out my name and I will receive a ping. You can also find the chat on the top of the page, right under the bonuslevel logo.

~ Gameinsky

  Wow, this game already has 8000 levels, what an accomplishment. And welcome back OMG, it's great to see you evaluating levels again.

  Welcome back OMG. I couldn't tell if you were gone or just unable to do admin stuff (noticed you were on occasionally). Good to have you back :)

And thanks Elizea for evaluating levels in the meantime, I could never be certain which admin it was until now :P

  Great to hear OMG! :)

  Thanks to Elizea for evaluating levels while I was away. Back now and ready to go.

  Thanks once again Elizea for evaluating our levels! :D

  The worst rating I give is a 3/5, when the level has truly annoyed me, purely for its lack of creativity and thought. In this game I have only given 5/5 ratings, purely to acknowledge the designers for making it fun for me to solve their levels, as they have been doing with me. However, I tend not to rate levels I can't solve, as I think it would be unfair, although I probably should just rate for the thought and creativity nonetheless.

Also, as far as level making is concerned, I think the levels should be evaluated by someone every week, whether it be Elizea or another admin, or even a new admin, otherwise the community grinds to a halt.

  I thought the same, Gis. Either upvote someone or don't vote at all.

  Then perhaps remove the negativity altogether and only allow people to upvote others?

  If that is so, then a rating system will be much, much worse. There will be nothing stopping someone from rating everyone they hate 1/5, or even every person they see 1/5. The impact of that will be far worse than a -1 rep. If a person has 10 people give them 5/5 and one gives 1/5, then their 5/5 will be forever ruined by that one person, whereas a -1 rep will be easily contradicted by future +1 reps given by fair people. It is the same with levels; we have seen many people spam 1/5 ratings that destroyed levels that deserve nothing but 4s and 5s, and this would happen with people as well.

Even worse is the concept of "rating" an actual person. Rating a level isn't too difficult because everything is directly in front of us for all to see. Originality, design, organization, etc. How would you rate a person? There are so many factors that make us each what we are, and for someone who doesn't even know us to drop all factors and take instead what they see on a computer screen just seems horrible. Therefore, I would support a reputation system, but reject a rating system.

  A reputation system sounds nice but doesn't really work. People will start using it as a revenge and/or will ask other people to trade reputation...

  I would actually suggest something more like Stack Overflow, where users receive reputation. In this case, you could +1 any comment in a level or forum, and the user would receive reputation for that comment. Inversely, you could -1 someone's comment, and it would decrease their reputation. Then we could have a filter like MapleStory, where you can give only +1 or -1 rep a day, and only change the same person's reputation once a month (so you can't spam -1s or +1s on the same person every day).

Should we create a forum for this?

  That sounds like a neat suggestion, but I doubt JP is willing to put the effort to implement it.

  I have a new suggestion to put on the table of discussion. How about adding a rating system (always positive) to members/players of this community. Instead of just having ratings only to designers we could also rate (and thus acknowledge their contribution) players as well. The idea came from OMR's new highscore at the 'Default Male Avatar' level. I really wanted to vote for OMR for giving this new challenge to everyone. I haven't thought of the exact rating system yet, that is if it should be the same 5star or something else but my intention is first to test the waters and then formalize a clear proposal.

  Completed half the officials, but Andy's levels are still frustrating me! :/

  I find it really interesting that for the first 100 officials, only Aowyn has highscores that aren't shared by any other player...