Calling out lifeofcrime

[Slashmore]

Slashmore,
I never had a problem with the games or the code, period. Read the original message in the thread! What pissed me off is spamming your game on mine. Competition breads creativity but when we dump a couple hundred dollars into advertising a month and you get someone spamming there game on yours you can see when I got pissed, can you not? Since then it's stopped and I've only responded to others and yourself for trying to call me out.

Pdquinn,
At least Slashmore is running a game, I don't see you running anything but your mouth in every thread you can. Maybe you should log into the games and then judge and not just say "hey it's another mafia game". The code base is not based on the current crop of mafia games that are out there. And yes there are a lot of original elements in my game that I added though the years but as I said to Slashmore the code or game was never the problem. The problem is when you spam another game with yours. If and when you get a game going and you start paying for advertising how 'bout I come to your game and start spamming forums, in-games and chat with my game? Oh and StateOfCrime has been going for almost 4 years, we've been here way before the influx of Mafia games hit the net, we are just wading out the saturation phase.

mdshare,
Ya the thought crossed my mind many times.. However I've mastered my Zen of Anger LOL.

I got you now, I said the spamming would stop and it has

Yead I'd be pissed off also if I spent loads $$ on trying to get players and someone costs and spams mine my game.

Thanks,
Slashmore

P.S - I signed up to your game and it looks good.

[Sunchaser]

doesn't has to be a ddos attack, simple mysql flooding does the job, most of those guys (crime/mafia themed games) have all the same mistake and that's having mysql queries on their main page , no need even to create a ingame account to perform mysql flooding.

I see lot of games that reports statistics on the home page, i believe those statistics are made with mysql queries? Why it's a mystake? I can register in a game with a temporary mail and then flood the game while logged with a cURL script...

[lolninja]

You should be doing some server-side caching your main page, this is just to free up some resources. Also most landing pages tend to have semi static content, as in stuff that only changes once or twice a month, so this can be cached to avoid unneeded database access.

There could also be some issues with people launching DDoS attacks on landing pages, but imho any page that is accessible without being logged in should have minimal database access, just to be safe, though this isn't always possible.

[Sunchaser]

A possible solution: Stats should be computed maybe once a day in some defined tables and the main page should connect with a restricted user that access also these (optimized) tables?

However, i think a ddos attack can be done by calling the login function? I mean that if one wants to attack your site with a ddos there is no much to do...

[Pdquinn]

Wow your mighty righteous. Your all sunshine and dingleberries when someone agrees with you but as soon as they disagree its bringing out the big guns.

Had you read through my threads you would have seen that I ran a successful MUD for five years and a LoGD script.
Just because I am not running one now doesn't mean I havn't or will not. Just because I am not running one now also doesn't mean I don't have a valid opinion.

That's like saying, because I am not president, I shouldn't complain about anything a president does.
Or because I am not a cop, I shouldn't complain if a cop does anything less than legal.

Ok, so your code might be original. Your idea is not.

[codestryke]

Pdquinn,

As I said you made a judgment based on the theme of the game, we get it you don't like mafia games. What you don't seem to realize is not all mafia games are the same or based of the same codes some are actually original. Do we really need you to chime in every time the topic comes up? I saw that you ran a MUD, good for you, didn't see about LoGD but hey that's just as original as a mafia game IMHO and I worked on that script with Eric as well when it was original.

As I said at the time when I got the code the mafia segment of games was original, it's not now, but I would be a fool to throw away something that earns really good money because the theme may be played out. People still register daily, people still buy stuff in the game.

What I do continue to see is you adding negativity to the forums and not adding much else. You just sit on mount high like every other arm chair quarterback yelling how this is foul, this stinks, do it this way because you once played football in the peewee league.

Disagree me me, naw I don't mind, hell couple people here on this forum I don't agree with, however, they at least bring something to the table and provide a valid argument other then "this sucks" without being condescending or insulting.

[Pdquinn]

First, the LoGD bit. Yeah, its an unoriginal script...thats why I don't run it anymore.
The MUD was successful, ran for five years and didn't make money...that's dedication.

You don't like that this fellow stole your code and screwed you over, do something about it. If you have copyrights or trademarks, exercise them and sue him. Complaining on here isn't very positive is it? In fact I would say it's pretty negative.

I don't bring anything to the table?

Have you been to the scripts vault, game ideas, or the A.I forum? Seems like I am perfectly capable of having a chat without complaining in those forums.

Airing your complaints against someone who may or may not be in the wrong publicly is never a positive thing. It reflects badly on your character and frankly shows that you do not have the skills or personality to succesfuly handle your problems in private. Like most businesses do. Have you ever heard Walmart publicly decry K-mart because they both have Mart in their names and run their stores almost identically?

Instead of sitting here firing back and forth between each other why don't you instead focus on improving the gameplay, adding new content and updating your game to further separate yourself from this fellows code. There is always room for improvement or additions.

Or spend your time looking at your legal options. If you have proof that your game was first, and the code and gameplay are truly similar you should have no problem taking him to small claims court if it hurts your business.

[JGadrow]

While I agree that codestryke could use a little help in the tact department, you will notice that codestryke has stated - repeatedly - that the issue is NOT that the sites are the same or anything of that nature. The complaint is the spamming of codestryke's forum trying to, in essence, steal customers from him for this clone game.

The fact that the game was a clone was only a minor irritant, the issue was that they're, basically, leaching off of his advertising dollars.

[Pdquinn]

Ok, block his I.P, limit newcomers to introductions in the forum until a certain time or posts (five would do it, fifty is uncalled for), have some kind of moderated e-mail confirmation. I use to do this for my MUD's forum, my moderators rotated throughout the day so there never was more than half a hour without a forum check. Players when signing up would have to wait for a human to view the e-mail and IP's of those signing up. Then they would be on a 78 watch list where moderators would very closely watch their posts. Some still got through but it significantly reduced spammers, trolls and bots.

[lolninja]

... I use to do this for my MUD's forum, my moderators rotated throughout the day so there never was more than half a hour without a forum check. Players when signing up would have to wait for a human to view the e-mail and IP's of those signing up. Then they would be on a 78 watch list where moderators would very closely watch their posts ...

I think the problem with this system is your relying on a large group of people to moderate a system, as you have mentioned before the MUD you ran was not for profit, which means your moderators did it because they enjoyed your service. If however your MUD was a paid service, people would be less willing to moderate for free, which either means you implement draconian filters or set spammed from time to time.

I don't know if this would work, but you could have a form within your game, that lets players report potential abuse, so say for example someone creates a new game, called 'supaClone'. Within your in-game chat they some in spamming your members, 'Hey come play supaClone, its loads better than this game!!!!!'.
Your players could submit a spam form which asks for the name of a given game, then you use this to filter incoming text or something?
If someone mentions one of the banned names n number of times within a given period of time you ban them pending moderation.

Though me giving any form of advice is totally hypocritical, as I'm still writing my first game, and its not very far into development

[raestlyn]

I know several games where that kind of form has been very successful, so that might be nice addition. And stating in the game rules that advertising other games isn't allowed will give you the freedom to do what ever you want with the spammers.

[die4me]

Funny I don't see your rep all that high, nor do I see you adding anything great to this community. I've written many of articles here, helped I don't know how many people and have bought things from other members. Ya know instead of just going out and copying them So I think this gives me a little bit of a leeway in letting me speak my piece. Especially when I think it's a benefit to the community and let them know they are not alone when dealing with this.




[/quote]

If you think this will benefit this place then put it in the right place for it. I know you are mad for someone spamming your site but take things the right way check the domain registar and see if it has a no spamming tos if it does turn them in. ID they don't first send them a email or pm asking them to stop if they don't. Then escalate it and post it. Do things more calmly and don't rush into things that make you look like you are pouting ok.