Post by Jay Luo on May 18, 2012 11:14:01 GMT -5
Emerald Empire actually does have a web host, so that isn't really a problem. I started out on a $12/month plan similar to the one described above, but about a week after I added the "invite a friend to play EE" feature, our player base skyrocketed and my web hosting service yelled at me for using too much bandwidth. They insisted I upgrade to a $200/month dedicated server. (Some of the very old players may remember the headaches caused by this migration.) Although I wouldn't mind help defraying the server cost, I am hesitant to ask people for money because (a) I've committed to running this game Not-For-Profit, and (b) people who pay for something have much higher expectations for service (and deservedly so). And anyway, the financial aspect isn't nearly as large an obstacle as the technical aspect.
The main roadblock is technical; specifically, the depreciation of FBML by Facebook. Emerald Empire is written as an FBML application and it relies on Facebook for user authentication (i.e., to know who is who, so I know that I can match up RL Bob to Kakita Bob in the game), and also for the gifting system. Since FBML is going away, I would need to heavily modify the code for the game to keep it going.
To stay with Facebook would require me to rewrite the game to be an iFrames application; unfortunately, I'm not really familiar with iFrames, so I would need to learn how it works (I'm really more of a facebook hobbyist than a professional facebook programmer), then I'd have to migrate EE to become this sort of application.
To move off of Facebook would require me to basically write code to replace everything facebook currently does for EE; I'm pretty sure this would be more work, since I'd have to write my own login system to track who is who, and it would have to be really good as I know I have some pretty clever exploiters out there.
In any case, the main bottleneck is really me and the amount of time I can spend on the game. (Sorry about that!) I'm doing all the programming and content generation for the game right now, and I just haven't had enough bandwidth to figure out how to migrate to iFrames while simultaneously keeping the campaign plot moving forward. Based on that, I was thinking it would be simplest to try and wrap things up, with the spectre of Doom looming over everyone for added melodrama. However, the massive outcry in support of continuing the game is certainly making me reconsider.
I am deeply grateful for the outpouring of support and people offering to help. I haven't figured out a good way to delegate work to other people; I'll try to think about ways to let people contribute somehow. (Though, when I have time, I will totally steal the button icons posted by Akodo Keisuke earlier.)
The main roadblock is technical; specifically, the depreciation of FBML by Facebook. Emerald Empire is written as an FBML application and it relies on Facebook for user authentication (i.e., to know who is who, so I know that I can match up RL Bob to Kakita Bob in the game), and also for the gifting system. Since FBML is going away, I would need to heavily modify the code for the game to keep it going.
To stay with Facebook would require me to rewrite the game to be an iFrames application; unfortunately, I'm not really familiar with iFrames, so I would need to learn how it works (I'm really more of a facebook hobbyist than a professional facebook programmer), then I'd have to migrate EE to become this sort of application.
To move off of Facebook would require me to basically write code to replace everything facebook currently does for EE; I'm pretty sure this would be more work, since I'd have to write my own login system to track who is who, and it would have to be really good as I know I have some pretty clever exploiters out there.
In any case, the main bottleneck is really me and the amount of time I can spend on the game. (Sorry about that!) I'm doing all the programming and content generation for the game right now, and I just haven't had enough bandwidth to figure out how to migrate to iFrames while simultaneously keeping the campaign plot moving forward. Based on that, I was thinking it would be simplest to try and wrap things up, with the spectre of Doom looming over everyone for added melodrama. However, the massive outcry in support of continuing the game is certainly making me reconsider.
I am deeply grateful for the outpouring of support and people offering to help. I haven't figured out a good way to delegate work to other people; I'll try to think about ways to let people contribute somehow. (Though, when I have time, I will totally steal the button icons posted by Akodo Keisuke earlier.)