The SSMB Community Game Night - Currently Closed for Reconstruction

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Updated the OP with the full Game Night staff members, as well as people we want to give some thanks to.

[Kaze no Klonoa]

We'll begin preparations in about minutes. Don't miss out! 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Game Night is still going on. We've got 4 player slots left for L4D2 VS so come join us! Just let us know and we'll add you.

[Kaze no Klonoa]

That's a wrap folks! Only 4 people made it today for our somewhat test run, but regardless it was a hell of a time! Damn you Stricker, you are just such a fun target to destroy

 

Anyway, we're in preparations for a new theme and an Encore Night will be up tomorrow. It's too late to do anything atm haha

 

Stay tuned! We're leaving our events at 7:30 PM EST on Saturdays now, right after the Movie Night!

[Tori Himemiya]

Yeah L4D was fun as usual. Remind me to write a guide for you guys next time so you don't be confused as much. But good games guys.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Yeah L4D was fun as usual. Remind me to write a guide for you guys next time so you don't be confused as much. But good games guys.

 

Including the fact that you can throw things as a tank with a simple click of the mouse. I won't mention names...

[Ryannumber1gamer]

We've got our new theme!

 

Free 2 Play Fun Day!

 

It's a Game Night that everyone can take part in! It's Free 2 Play Fun Day! That's right, this week, all four games will be fun free 2 play games that anyone can play, so vote for your favourite game and come join us for a Game Night!

 

Uncharted 3 (PS3, F2P, Something New!)

 

Halo: Combat Evolved Demo (PC, F2P, Something New)

 

 

 

ACE: Cyber Evolution (PC, Something New, F2P) 

 

 

Team Fortress 2 (PC, F2P, REMATCH!)

 

 

VOTE COMING TOMORROW! Tell us your opinion on this week's theme. GAME ON SSMB!

[Kaze no Klonoa]

btw voting is up now

 

 

What’s your excuse for not coming? It’s all free-to-play!

 

This week, we the SSMB Game Night staff want to try something different. We want to offer unique free-to-play choices for everybody to play. All the games can run on toasters and are fairly fun. While we do offer TF2 as an option, we want to recommend everybody to give the Something New options a shot!

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Reminder: All Games this week are Free 2 Play and can run on almost anything, so everyone can play, so come ahead and get your vote in for this weeks game!

[Kaze no Klonoa]

A reminder that voting is ending on Thursday! Remember, all of these choices are free to play, so even if your computer can't play something like TF2, you'll be able to play the Halo 1 Demo, or Uncharted 3 (if you have a PS3) or ACE: Cyber Evolution!

 

A reminder that this will play if you close the demo for Halo 1 on PC

 

[Kaze no Klonoa]

Voting has been moved to today! At exactly 7 PM EST, the vote will close again! If no additional votes have been counted, the SSMB Staff will use another method to figure out the winner of the tie! Are you here to fight Space Dudes, or are you here to cry like little baby men? It's all here at the SSMB Game Night! Join us, for Free-to-Play Fun Day!

 

EDIT: We've decided to close the voting and pick Halo as our winner. Ahem.

 

This week's game: Halo Combat Evolved PC Demo

"Halo, Combat Evolved! Buy one, heck, buy two, that's an order soldier!"

 

So, how teh heck are we gonna play this game?

First up, I'll be hosting the server via GamesRanger. We'll try to set it up so you don't have to make a GamesRanger account to join (Although for those with one we'll set up a room. We prefer for you to join via here.) Due to the concern regarding giving out the IP I'll have to give it out via PM.

 

Download the demo here, via IGN's abandoned Fileplanet: (Download will begin on opening)

 

(No it's not a virus calm your warthogs kids)

 

Hope to see you there soldier! Everybody can play this game tonight, requirements are fairly low for the game. The trial has a warning when opening stating that you might not have enough RAM to run but it'll still work fine.

[...]

To add to Klonoa's above post, you need GameRanger in order to join. Just follow these instructions:

 

1) Download the Client

2) Create an account within the client, using a email

3) Because you need a subscription for a full account locked name, you're going to have to set a nickname that's really, really unique. For example, there may be tons of users who's names are Felix, or Klonoa. Change it to something else, like FelixtheKid, or KazenoKlonoa. 4) Add user KazenoKlonoa or Strickerx5 (S is capitalized)

5) We'll let you know when the room will be set up. Future instructions will be provided from there.

[Kaze no Klonoa]

Hey yall! Who wants to play some Halo? I sure do, so let's review on how we shall play!

 

1. First, download the Halo demo! It should be a pretty fast download. Upon finishing it, check if it works. There will be a warning about the game's RAM that will pop up but this is normal and the game will still run fine regardless. Download the demo here, via IGN's abandoned Fileplanet: (Download will begin on opening)
2. Next, get GameRanger working. I'll add Felix's instructions here. 

   1) Download the Client (Klonoa's Note: Added Download Link)

   2) Create an account within the client, using an email (Klonoa's Note: Registration shouldn't take too long, they will send a verification email when you're almost done. Click the link provided in that email to activate your account and you're good to go.)

   3) Because you need a subscription for a full account locked name, you're going to have to set a nickname that's really, really unique. For example, there may be tons of users who's names are Felix, or Klonoa. Change it to something else, like FelixtheKid, or KazenoKlonoa (Klonoa's Note: Make it really unique. Adding numbers and such is fine, we just need to figure out that it's you.)

   4) Add username KazenoKlonoa or Strickerx5 (Klonoa's Note EDIT: Stricker is unable to come atm, just add me)

3. Next, the new instructions. We'll let you all know (And send you a chat message if you are online GameRanger and have added us) when we'll be setting up the lobby. There are multiple ways to find the lobby. You can look it up on the server browser, find friend specific servers, or other methods I haven't figured out yet. There should be a way to join friend's games though. We'll allow late joiners too. If you are around when we start the server, the game will promptly open. When you enter the game, do not do anything. GameRanger will automatically control both setting up the lobby and joining it, so you'll be in no time. Just don't do it like I did and instantly open the Campaign instead
4. Have fun! We're starting the lobby at 7:30 PM EST tops. We allow late joiners but it is super hard to organize that, so please get ready and come as soon as possible.

W-w-wait, I have to download GameRanger? UGGHHH SO NOT WORTH IT

 

GameRanger is unfortunately the only real method of playing the game right now. It's convenient, and allows for people to play multiplayer games that have previously lost support (Such as Star Wars Battlefront II and Batlefield 1942). Both it and the Halo demo are fast downloads, and creating an account is much more simpler and requires much less information. We tried doing it so those who just have the demo can connect to the server I.P., but GameRanger prevents that from happening unfortunately.

 

See you guys at 7:30 PM EST! It's gonna be a hell of a game!

(Like I'm good at advertising)

[Hero of Legend]

I almost bought Halo PC a few years back, but I was told that game was long obselete and won't work on Vista and beyond no?

[Kaze no Klonoa]

We're using a demo for the game instead. It works well on other OSes as I was able to get both my Windows 7 Laptop and my Windows 8 laptop to play the demo.

 

The original Halo game works well on other OSes actually. Halo 2 is a different story.

[Kaze no Klonoa]

The Game Night is in 3 hours! If you are joining, please begin Steps 1-2 for the full instruction set as soon as possible. I can't stress this enough how difficult it is to manage this kind of stuff during the event is on.

 

EDIT:

 

Do not add Strickerx5 as he is not able to play with us. If you wish to co-host in case I have to do something, PM me!

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Game Night's in 30 minutes!

[Kaze no Klonoa]

The GameRanger lobby is now open! To ensure the best organization and have a lot of players joining, please get ready now!

 

The game is free to download, everybody can participate! GameRanger is also a free download and is easy to set up! What are you waiting for?

 

 

Simple recap:

 

1) Download the Halo Demo (Download opens upon click) and GameRanger

2) Create a account super fast using the GameRanger client, and give yourself a really unique username

3) Add "KazenoKlonoa" on GameRanger as a friend

4) Join the lobby I am in or find the Halo Trial lobby with the description "#SSMBGameNight"

5) I will be providing the password for those to join in a special PM. You have to let me know if you want to receive the password to join the lobby.

 

 

General Map Rules:

Halo: Combat Evolved Trial is very limited, with Blood Gulch being the only map and Slayer/CTF being the only gamemodes. Are plan is to start with Slayer if not enough players are around and then switch to CTF when we have a team of at least 6-8 players. Up to 10 players can play.

 

JOIN US AND FIGHT SPACE DUDES TODAY

 

EDIT: WE NEED PLAYERS! We currently have 0 players around and almost all of our expected players are not coming.

[Kaze no Klonoa]

Unfortunately, due to low player turnout. We are cancelling this week's event til further notice. We're really sorry guys

 

Ryan will follow up with a post on something really important that will impact the lifeblood of the event as a whole. We want to prevent things like this from happening again. I've talked to Ryan, and we believe our structure for the whole event is pretty messed up as a whole.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Building onto what Klonoa said. We believe that the basic structure of Game Night has more or less come up with a lot of problems. A lot of problems that we feel need to be ironed out which is why we are going to begin work on discussing new methods and basically restructuring Game Night to iron out issues that have been there from it's conception. 

 

One issue in particular is Game Voting for example. We've noticed that the Nintendo based games are the ones getting the most votes or getting the most attention. which is understandable. Both me and Klonoa enjoy Smash and Mario Kart and the like but we can't keep putting them up as votes because it's unfair to players who have other consoles, or in general, players who wish to play another game. TF2 and L4D2 were also popular but in general, it seems to be only Nintendo games. 

 

Another thing is it seems that if a game isn't selected that some people want, they don't come to Game Night at all. Now there is fair enough, reasons for some people like PCs being out of commission or people not owning the game, but when it comes to Free 2 Play games in particular though, it does feel like people don't come because the game they wanted didn't get selected. We want to encourage people to give other games a chance but our structure disallows this.

 

We also need to clarify more on suggestions and voting. 

 

Firstly, we are going to begin considering game suggestions made on the thread as well as the document but that said, we are coming up with guidelines that you must consider before making a suggestion. These being 1. Easy and convenient Multiplayer setup, 2. If it's popular enough on SSMB, and 3. It's Accessibility. Me, Klonoa, and other Game Night staffers will then review the suggestions and then update the suggestions document with the accepted game.

 

Next is voting. We ask that you please vote for the game you are most likely coming to. We have had this issue several times in the past where SSMBers have voted on a certain game and when that game wins, they are nowhere to be seen when the Game Night actually arrives. As I previously said as well, we want to encourage you guys to also come to games that there is easy accessibility to.

 

The final things we wish to ask is more feedback. We want you guys to be critical and inform us of any issues, problems, or general criticisms with Game Night here. Me, Klonoa, Felix, and the other members of staff want to make Game Night as good as an experience as we can get, and we're always ready to improve and up our game. So please, just inform us with your opinions so we be aware of these issues and improve on them and in general, make Game Night a much better experience.

 

Finally, and this is a big thing. We need to be informed beforehand if you guys are coming to Game Night so we can get lobbies and everything set up. Yes, latecomers are welcome but this has become a major issue with everyone coming in the very last 30 minutes beforehand, wanting to play, and it ends up delaying Game Night because me and Klonoa are too busy trying to get everyone organized into lobbies and getting the thing set up in general. Just please try your best to give us awareness at least 90 minutes before Game Night so we can get things organized and set up as quickly and smoothly as possible.

 

TL;DR/Recap:

 

-We believe there is an issue with the structure of Game Night as a whole

-We are working to fix the structure 

-The games need to be diverse as it's unfair to other users to focus on one console

-Vote for the game you are most likely to play

-Even if your favourite isn't selected, if you have the winning game or the game is easily accessible such as F2P, we want to encourage you to come along anyway and have some fun with us.

-Please Follow Suggestion Guidelines

-Please be critical and give us feedback

-Please inform us if you are coming to Game Night early so we can get lobbies and such sorted out beforehand.

 

Other than that, we are very sorry for any issues we've had in the Game Night Structure in the past 9 weeks and please stand by as we try our best to get these major issues sorted. We ask for your support, now more than ever. We'll keep you guys updated when we have more news.

[Kaze no Klonoa]

I'm adding onto this as well. I've been talking with Ryan the past few hours about how we've been handling the Game Night so far. I really want to change a lot of the things and adress a lot of the issues we've had with the event.

 

In short words, I think the structure and the essential management/design of our event is absolute bull. It's really hard to put it in a lot more positive words, but it's really what I can define the whole thing as.

 

Here is a list of major problems with our structure:

 

This Structure is seriously flawed, here's why

-Because of how game selections are picked, it's considered dangerous to try expanding to newer games. Even games that are free-to-play or have better multiplayer capabilities suffer from this because accessibility-wise, our structure is pretty much against this. It encourages people to vote for the same games more often while as a whole turning people out of other games.

-There are a large variety of consoles, and with each game we have to give up a certain base of SSMbers every single time. It sucks to see people say "I can't play cuz I don't own the game nor the console" or "I don't have my game/console anymore". The way we designed Game Night, whichever Game won instantly decided who could play and who couldn't. This sucks, and finding a solution for this will be dead impossible. The only we can do is try our best to sort-of remedy this.

-Because of this, voting should work, right? Sure, but here's the main problem with voting. Because of the structure of the event, it discourages those from voting because they know certain choices will win. Nintendo games are unfortunately a prime example of this. There is no balance in weight between these titles, which makes it hard to pick selections each week.

 

We believe that this can be fine-tuned. While not all of the issues have good enough solutions, we'll still work our best to fix our current structure.

 

Hey guys, seriously, we need your help on this.

 

We understand how new and much more different Game Night is compared to other events, but we want to seriously ask you to please make our jobs at least a bit easier.

 

-Let us know if you are coming. Let us know if you are coming late, or early. How much time you'll have, whatever or not last minute changes force you to not being able to come.

 

Holy crap, I can't say this enough. If you have expressed interest in playing with us at the Game Night, please contact with us regarding ANYTHING as soon as possible, whatever you have questions or if you are able to come/not come. Sorting out everything at the last minute is absolute hell, and today's event could had at least had a better chance if you guys let us know in advance if you were gonna arrive late and such.

 

-Please don't vote for a game and randomly decide to not show up without giving us a reason

 

You voted for a game, obviously meaning you want to play it. Don't add fuel to something that's not worth it. Because of this, games won because people wanted to see them win/wanted to play but then just flat-out disregard the fact that they had specifically asked us to set up such an event for a game they've wanted to play.

 

-If the game you have voted lost, then it's alright. Maybe try to participate in it if you can?

 

If tonight was any indication, regardless of what game won nearly everybody could play it (If they're all free-to-play choices). My point is, if a game you've voted for doesn't win, but you can play the game that does win, then we'd highly appreciate it if you try your best to come anyway. The Halo demo is highly accessible and only needed an external server client for it to play online (And might I add you this took only 10 minutes for me to set up), so it's actually quite disappointing that not many turned up today (Although I've been told that a lot of people expected to come did not come due to certain complications)

 

Lastly, provide feedback. The events are all fun and all, but we want to know everything from the ground up. Let us know if you think a certain game is winning all of the time, or that the structure of the event needs fine-tuning. This will all greatly improve the overall event and it's experience.

 

We really apologize that our event didn't happen today, and we hope that it won't happen again and such. To repair this, while we're working on kinking out our problems, we'll be putting up a Nintendo theme next week. We have no plans to play Halo: Combat EvolvedPC Demo til further notice.

 

I really love working at The SSMB Game Night. Sure, it's really difficult to manage, but it's something I really want to see succeed and the memories I have playing with others is something I won't forget for a long time. We have plans and such for the event, such as giveaways, a dedicated chat room, our own exclusive leaderboards, tournaments, maybe some form of a way we can stream our games? Who knows what's in store with these ideas, but we've got to go back to the basics right now and see what we can do to keep this event in a stable condition. We apologize for our issues the past few weeks and will promise you guys that we'll do everything we can to keep SSMB Game Night a unique and fun social experience with your fellow members.

 

Until then, Klonoa out. We'll provide details on our Nintendo theme tomorrow, and we're also gonna announce another thing as well later.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I would also like to add that right now, we would appreciate you guys posting your thoughts and if you have any current issues. If you do, we would like to get them improved now while we're doing the restructure. 

[Lisbon]

 

 

-Please don't vote for a game and randomly decide to not show up without giving us a reason

Yeahh, I feel really guilty about this. I had an overnight orientation session for college and I got home and I was just too exhausted to really do anything productive other than lay in bed and watch tv. I hate having to go back on my word and I was fully prepared to participate tonight, but real life got in the way the past couple of days and I figured it wouldn't be any fun for people to play with someone who had a near total lack of energy.

 

---

 

The thing about game nights is that they're rather tricky - someone might not have the right console or the game being played, and when the community isn't very big, this could be a problem. The old forum I was on had a game night run by the staff, and all they played was Garry's Mod and TF2 for this very reason - however, that forum also had about 200 - 250 members online at any given time, guests withstanding, and the turnout was still only about 7 - 8 people per night.

 

This isn't like movie night, where people can just click and watch. They need to have the game and they need to have it on the right system. This forum isn't a busy and bustling community, so streamlining easy to access games is a must. Perhaps the issue was downloading the server software, but I don't know. Maybe getting big turnouts just isn't possible, but hey, I'd say that a small turnout where everybody has a good time would be a better result than a large turnout where it's a hassle to get everything going smoothly.

 

Streamline the games via accessibility and how many people you know for a fact own them and then just roll with it from there. That's pretty much all I can recommend at this point.

[Kaze no Klonoa]

Good morning everybody. Unfortunately, yesterday was a big hit on the event. We're currently discussing on ways to improve the overall night, but for now, we're going to treat you all to something cool. Since what we're about to reveal is drastically different from our current structure we're fine with announcing and preparing it now. So without further ado.......

 

The SSMB Game Night Staff presents....

The SSMB World Championships 2015

(Yes, we used comic sans. That way you know it's getting serious here)

 

The SSMB Game Night's 10th event is more than an event. It's a tournament of fun! 4 Games, and a load of SSMBers! We're playing four separate games, each with their own tournament ladders and rules! This isn't your traditional event, and this doesn't all happen in one night: The SSMB World Championships is having battles every single day during the event! There's no end date, and the event is only done when all 4 separate tourneys are over. This is bizarre, this is madness, and this will be fun.

 

So what's the game line-up? So glad you asked.

 

The Games:

All four games are in the spoiler! The games being played are.............

Super Smash Bros. Wii U (No 3DS Tournament, sorry!) *

Mario Kart 8*

Team Fortress 2 **

 

Halo: Combat Evolved Demo***

 

*No DLC is required to play

** Servers will be reserved from serveme.tf, must be done at a certain time

*** The GameRanger client is required to play

 

All 4 of these games will have separate events, and will either run separately or together at the same time. This is still a work-in progress and while we are hoping to get something set up next next week, we aren't guaranteeing anything (Other than that it will be fun.) It's a first for us, so we're gonna need all the help we get to get not one, but 4 games set up. Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros. is specifically free-for-all while Halo: Combat Evolved and TF2 will be team-based. More rules on these games will be provided later.

 

What's in it for me?

Hmmmm....

All sorts of things. I'm planning on possibly setting up group giveaways and possibly a small award (Like a cheap Steam game) for winning. In addition, we have contacted the admins and we are currently interested in having badges for the event. Because SSMB is still in a bit of shambles, don't expect these badges to be handed out anytime soon, but it's something we're considering.

 

How is this gonna work?

4 separate games (Smash, MK8, TF2, Halo) will have separate tournaments in either separate times or around the same time.

 

For TF2 and Halo, we'll gauge how many people are interested and ask you guys to split in teams. For Halo, we're allowing 6 players per team (Only two teams). For TF2, it's up to the player cap as long as the team number is balanced. TF2's Final Game Mode for the event isn't finalized, but the Halo demo's game mode is CTF.

 

For Smash and Mario Kart, they're all free-for-all tournaments and we'll use challonge to assemble a tournament list. We'll be looking at past SSMB tournaments (And ask those who set those tournaments) to learn a bit more on how to assemble this together. We're asking those who are facing each other in a match to organize a fair time to play each other.

 

I wanna see them play!

Unfortunately, we still don't have any plans to set up a livestream for those to watch matches. However, with Smash's upcoming Youtube Replay feature and MK Channel, those two games will easily be covered. We don't know what we can do regarding the Halo event though.

 

Wait, what about the Game Night? You said it was broken.

And it is. We've been wanting to do a tournament for awhile and decided that now is a better time than ever. We need your guys help to get both the Game Night and this tournament chugging along. Our structure is still broken, yes, but while we're managing this cool new thing, we're gonna patch things up and fix current issues with the Game Night. It may be possible that after the World Championships that we could potentially take a small break off the thing to get our next structure finalized.

 

We hope you guys are ready to participate with us, because Event 9 (Pretend Event 8 happened) is based off of the selections here!

 

Event 9: The SSMB's World Championships 2015 Prelude

 

See the document for the selections in our SSMB's World Championships 2015 Prelude!

 

Vote here!

 

EDIT: But that's not all.

 

Introducing our newest staff member, Strickerx5! A seasonal participant of the Game Night and a hater of Ponyo, he'll be helping us restructuring the event as well as helping us out and all sorts of other stuff!

 

We may plan to hire (no, there's no salary :/) 2 additional helpers specifically for the tournament should it be needed.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

While we work, in the meantime, we've got the signups set up for the Smash portion of our SSMB World Championships set up so feel free to sign up!

 

http://challonge.com/tournaments/signup/AaGQ7gRO1W