Reviews From Trotting Krips -- The Official Unofficial Relaunch

[Flack]

Great review. I was intentionally avoiding reviewing ICJ's and Jiz's games because I was too close to the author, but I thought this review was both complimentary and neutral.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

You are an author who went through writing school! Jiz and I would love to hear your thoughts. And both of us have ironhide skin. Please don't limit yourself my friend!

[bryanb]

Great review. I was intentionally avoiding reviewing ICJ's and Jiz's games because I was too close to the author, but I thought this review was both complimentary and neutral.

Thanks! It's always a delicate operation, but reviewing our friends' work is a long-standing Trotting Krips tradition. I wouldn't want the site to not cover Robb's games at all even as they're winning awards left and right -- that would just be weird. Plus, they're interesting games so there's always a lot to talk about.

I might review Meeting Robb Sherwin eventually. I think it's going to be a difficult game to review since it's as much an interactive documentary as a work of interactive fiction, but at the same time I'm not sure anyone is as qualified to review it as any of us would be because I think we're the target audience for it. I've been waiting to see a review that just says something along the lines of, "Who are these people and why is this a game?" The fact that I haven't seen anything like that yet might mean that Jizaboz, Robb, Flack, and Jason Scott are bigger Internet celebrities than I'm giving them credit for.

[Flack]

I'll write up a review for it later today.

Do you tend to post reviews of the same game by different writers?

[bryanb]

Do you tend to post reviews of the same game by different writers?

Absolutely! One of the most legendary moments in Trotting Krips history (mentioned in my last review) happened when Robb, Ben, and I all wrote our own reviews of Pass The Banana during the '99 competition. This was the first and I believe the only time all of us wrote reviews of the same game. Back then, most of us -- including me, most definitely -- had no idea what Admiral Jota was going to accomplish in his IF career (such as WINNING the competition and getting multiple XYZZY Awards in 2007) so it was funny to think that Pass The Banana, of all games, was the first title we all cared enough about to review. Not Adventure. Not Zork. Not Knight Orc. Not Photopia. Just Pass The Banana. Good times!

The way I look at it is we will inevitably disagree or just have very unique, individual takes on different games so it's best if we have the freedom to review any game we want to. It's not like we have a meeting to determine how we feel about a particular game and then decide who should review it. Back in the day, I thought Ben and I tended to like and dislike the same games more often than not, but even when we reviewed the same games the reviews were very different due to our different approaches and styles (that's my nice way of saying his reviews were much better written and much funnier than mine). On the other hand, Robb would sometimes have these unconventional opinions on games than literally no one else shared. When I say "no one else," I don't mean just no one else on the writing staff of RFTK -- I mean ON THE PLANET. I think it's great when a reviewer thinks differently from everyone else and can see things no else notices. He also had this knack for somehow relating past events in his life to adventure games (parodied brilliantly in Ben's review of Infidel). When I review a game, I start by thinking about what I liked about the game and what I didn't like about it and then take it from there. Robb's approach sometimes seemed to start with him deciding whether the game reminded him more of a past traumatic breakup or his first job and then taking it from there.

[pinback]

Bryan (rightfully) referring to me as being in more of an "advisory role" for the current incarnation of RFTK is the most biting, hurtful, and wonderful thing that's ever been said about me online.

It makes me want to be a better person. I will try to be a better person. I will likely fail, but I will TRY, goddammit.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Robb's approach sometimes seemed to start with him deciding whether the game reminded him more of a past traumatic breakup or his first job and then taking it from there.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I've got 80% of a review of a game done. I don't want to post it while comp stuff is still going on (and I can't make public comp reviews till after the comp). Additionally, I don't want to burn us out, I like the idea of staggering articles on a weekly basis, a little. But none of this is in stone, obviously. We're just making all this up as we go along!

[Flack]

Bryan (rightfully) referring to me as being in more of an "advisory role" for the current incarnation of RFTK is the most biting, hurtful, and wonderful thing that's ever been said about me online.

It makes me want to be a better person. I will try to be a better person. I will likely fail, but I will TRY, goddammit.

I got billed as "some JC regulars". Take what you can get.

[bryanb]

It looks like my first post caused slightly more pain and offense than I had originally intended. Sorry guys! The problem is I don't know a way to get people to contribute to a website without cracking some heads in the process. Also, everything on this forum looks like a nail to me.

In other news, Flack is working on a review! Ben is back! Robb is working on a review! I think I speak for everyone when I say YES YES YES.

I got billed as "some JC regulars". Take what you can get.

Code Name: LEGION

[Flack]

I'll write up a review for it later today.

Meeting Robb Sherwin by Jizaboz (2019)

[bryanb]

Ben once said something along the lines of, "The last thing this hobby needs is to become more incestuous than it already is," but I think we could actually have a pretty great website even if all we did was review each other's work. Does anyone disagree that Flack's best review so far is of Meeting Robb Sherwin and mine is of Enceladus? I really think we're on to something here. Who is up for Patty Flinger being the Game of the Month for November?

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Ben once said something along the lines of, "The last thing this hobby needs is to become more incestuous than it already is," but I think we could actually have a pretty great website even if all we did was review each other's work. Does anyone disagree that Flack's best review so far is of Meeting Robb Sherwin and mine is of Enceladus? I really think we're on to something here. Who is up for Patty Flinger being the Game of the Month for November?

Yeah, but. If not us then who? We're not all drunk and high on feedback for our work and games and experiments. I like that we have a community that has survived for decades. If Ben makes a game again someday I'm gonna be all over that.

[Jizaboz]

Random fact:

"Flack's Cafeteria" (a short Hugo program with graphics) is what inspired the windowed view I use in the DPRK game!

I really should finish that damn game.. or maybe I'll write a review for TK soon instead heh-heh

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I want to put a Hugo shell on GitHub with multiple window support.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Bryan - I can set up an instance of the same forum software that caltrops uses if you would like a separate RFTK forum.

I don't think anyone will ever register a new account on this BBS. And the way that the forum spam is not solved by phpbb, I wouldn't see a new registration.

[Tdarcos]

It makes me want to be a better person. I will try to be a better person. I will likely fail, but I will TRY, goddammit.

"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'."
- Master Yoda

[bryanb]

Bryan - I can set up an instance of the same forum software that caltrops uses if you would like a separate RFTK forum.

I don't think anyone will ever register a new account on this BBS. And the way that the forum spam is not solved by phpbb, I wouldn't see a new registration.

That's a tough one. As a user, I do prefer phpBB, and I really like how we've made the Text Adventures base a little more lively over the past few weeks. Plus, for now pretty much everyone who reads and contributes to RFTK is likely already here. Long term, I guess we really might want to have our own RFTK forums -- I'm already envisioning separate bases for AGT, Alan, and Level 9 games -- but I think we're just fine staying on JC for now. Flack had the great idea I already shared with you for a RFTK private forum for contributors which I think we'll probably need if we're ever going to make some of our more ambitious ideas a reality.

Does anyone else have an opinion on all this? Having never administered a phpBB forum myself, I'm wondering if there's any automated way to distinguish between spam and real account signups that works with any degree of reliability which might lighten Robb's administration load a little. Some quick googling indicates that there is an Akismet extension for phpBB, but I have no idea how well it works.

[Tdarcos]

I don't think anyone will ever register a new account on this BBS. And the way that the forum spam is not solved by phpbb, I wouldn't see a new registration.

Let me tell you, when I had a little, tiny blog that if I was lucky, over more than 7 years, a total of 6 people - total visits, not recurring users - other than myself read, I still got hundreds of spam posts. I had to expunge all of them and lock the place down, telling anyone who wanted to comment to e-mail me. Never got any. And I'll tell you something else, if it could have auto-deleted any posting containing a link with a url ending in .cn about 99% of the spam would have vanished.

[Tdarcos]

Does anyone else have an opinion on all this? Having never administered a phpBB forum myself, I'm wondering if there's any automated way to distinguish between spam and real account signups that works with any degree of reliability which might lighten Robb's administration load a little.

1. Use a CAPTCHA that requires you pick specific parts of a picture that have a specific thing.
2. Be sure it also uses the "I am not a robot" check box that uses mouse heuristics to differentiate between a human whose movement is jerky and inconsistent rather than machine-generated coordinates which are smooth and precise.
3. Use automated sign up. Response is sent back to the user's email address, requiring they click on a link in the reply email which validates them. Sending spam is only economical when they can use a computer to "fire blind" at lots of websites. A human doing a legitimate sign up knows these requirements, has seen and used them before, and knows they are in place to stop greasy spammers.
4. Use one of those lists or systems that have known spamming domains or websites, auto-delete (or not allow save to work for) any post with a url containing one.
5. Save the IP address, for two successive different messages violating the previous rule, auto-ban their IP address for a few days or they request reinstatement (which can be automated via response e-mail.)
6. Require same CAPTCHA as #1 or #2 for posts by guest (unverified) or new users (registration less than, say, two weeks old).
7. Reject posts with URLs from guest or perhaps also new users, or quarantine the posting.
8. Make sure the referrer on the submitted form matches your domain to prevent editing of submitted forms.
9. Validate and sanity check form input at both the JavaScript (client-side) and PHP (server-side) levels. Client should refuse to submit for failing checks. Server should reject submissions that do the same.

Spammers are in a hurry, want to post automated (they can spend the same amount of time to set up a hundred websites for autospamming, or sending 50,000 spam e-mails, as they can doing one lousy manual sign up), and do not have patience to wait weeks to use automated tools, and will move on to softer targets.