Where are we? (in General)

So, I ask, Where are we. Here in CB, we all gather together and fight... somewhere. I came to the realization that CB has no setting and I think this could add a lot of well needed depth. If you were trying to tell a friend about CB and they asked you when the game takes place, what is your answer. What about when it takes place?
It seems to me that this may be relatively easy to implement as all it is is text. Now, deciding on something we can all agree on is something totally different. How about this:

Alright, so were are all here in a Colosseum. A grand Colosseum. Does it take place in Rome? It could, the gladiator feel could be used. It doesn't really matter where, I personally do not see CB taking place in any real location, but in a fake, made up location. The shops and other small aspects of the game could be tweaked to fit this feel, this theme, what ever it is.

Remember those old text only RPG's? They created massive and complex worlds that you fought in only by telling you about your surroundings. Could we do that? Could we give CB a bit of a story, a bit of a setting, a bit more depth than fight, forge and debate?

CB is based loosely on Lord of the Rings.

One of the strong points about CB is that it's totaly up to the player.

You could be a Gladiator. Or a sentient Toaster. Or an ideal.

You could be fighting in an arena, in a dungeon crawl, around a table, or in someone elses head.

It's all at the preference of the player.

But as mentioned above, the themes of CB are based around LotR. Naming can go a long way to distance yourself from LotR though! :P

I'm pretty sure the Romans couldn't conjure fireballs, summon guardian angels, and train elemental attack pets, so they're out.
*grin*


Best answer.

If you read a book, and all it told you about the characters was that they were there, and made no mention of any other settings other than vague references, would you read it?
I do enjoy a game in which stuff is left up to the imagination. But, if we leave too much up for imagination, then there is nothing to go off of.

The paradox of choice states that, if given too much choice, people will simply cease to choose. If this game is so open as to allow you to believe you are in a dungeon crawler, in someones head or the adventures of a sentient toaster, people will tend to not choose. By not choosing anything, you are cutting out a major part of any game.

So do you honestly view your character as anything but a team fighting other teams? Does your CB experience encompass a much greater, untold story of reason and order in the chaos of battles or do you burn BA and talk in the community like me?

If we, or just Jon and NS, decide that CB does not need any kind of story, then so be it. I feel that even a loose story, something that gives reason to the fighting, maybe gives reason to the gods, gives purpose to do anything, ties the tutorial to everything else, something to follow along your way through the game can improve the game with out damaging anything. It could give a greater sense of accomplishment when certain goals are met, it could enhance the tutorial and it could give new players a better feel of progression. Someone recently made comment of achievements as a way progression and accomplishment not based off of MPR/NW. These could also be tied in.

Maybe we don't need a grand, all encompassing story. Maybe that is too much. What if just the tutorial had a story? What if, as you enter this world, you are thrown into a grand tournament in which you must quickly learn the ropes before going out onto the world?

In the end, story or not, I will still play. But, I strongly feel that this is one way, though maybe not the right way, but one way to greatly enhance the initial perception of the game.

Holodeck

the Internet, no contest!

In a super computer, ruled over by the mighty RNG who's true name is not to be spoken for to peak beyond the curtain and glimpse the true face of the RNG would most definitely cause insanity for the images of wildly flickering numbers showing an almost chaotic order. For the RNG giveth freely but taketh heavily if you should decide your investments were made poorly. It feeds on your time for the more you put in the more powerful both you and it become unlocking much larger numbers to be thrown into the equations.

Your nigh immortal virtual minions' appearances, growth and personality is left entirely to your own discretion. Teams are created for your own goals, but for the amusement and disparagement of all regardless.

....</boredom>

The best LARP system I ever played in allowed you to creater your character as onyone, from anywhere.

We had Optimus Prime alongside Garfield being harrassed by Conner MacLeod (and Dougal, Duncan, and more clan members!), while being watched by Orks, Elves and a small thing called Whitemoss.

There, we went on adventures. Here, we battle each other.

Do we need CB to be more fleshed out? What would it add?

I'm just saying that while games like that are great, they have a smaller target audience. Providing a bit of story will confine where your imagination can take you, but it may appeal to a greater audience.

Well I personally like the gameplay only aspect of CB, I don't think it is very inviting to new players. I have been discussing the game with my peers and the general response I am getting is 'whats the point' or 'what are we working towards'? For me growing a character and growing new strategies is fun. For an outsider looking in, the complete open ended-ness is a little too much.

Whether you are 5000 mpr or 5 mil mpr, the gameplay is exactly the same when you get down to it. This is how CB is designed and I like it, but how can we show new players its as great as we all know it is?

Even if we just made the tutorial into something cool, like the proving grounds idea that was recently proposed, we could at least get the new players to stay for a while longer. In the end, that should be our highest priority goal, a loose story is only a suggested way of going about solving the issue. I personally like the proving grounds idea better for the tutorial, but then it may lead the majority of players to finish it and then leave, a small win, but not much of one in the long run.

we need to start with ankou's background. the layout is far too plan for new players to seem appealed to any means imo

I agree that we should start by improving the interface

but quite frankly, no offense intended, I hate the background in Ankou's userpic (sorry!) and think we should go with a variety of themes instead.

More importantly than themes, though, is improving the GUI. It sucks.

I take no offense to user pic hate. It was just one idea, I personally see something much more towards a current color scheme, just really updated being implemented. I should make a new mockup.

OB, what specifically do you not like? The colors? The small graphics replacing words? The feel of it?

The colors clash horribly to me.

The small graphics replacing words doesn't bother me, and I think the layout there is more space efficient than what we've got currently.

Not a fan of the little boxes background behind "Carnage Blender" either.

I wish I could do graphical stuff. T_T I'd make mockups too.

The truth is, I have NO ART SKILLS. What do I have? Photoshop. It does to art what Garage Band did to music. It makes skill-less people think they have skills. Photoshop is so powerful that I can just screw around and make something cool. I'll make another one and make it a little more modest this time.

It is a little more space efficient than the current one, but note: I had to squish the BA a little and there's no fight feed in mine.

I also planned on using the extra space and trying to incorporate the idea of a user pic by your name

Sounds awesome :)

And as I was looking through old threads, here's one by Verifex that brought up some good points:

http://www.carnageblender.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002Yuc

This one too has interesting things to say about 'saving the game'.
http://www.carnageblender.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00292w

This thread also brings up some questions. This thread is essentially about how to enhance the game and its 3 years old. In 3 years, we are still talking about some of the things here, but here we stand, years later, and nothing has changed besides an inactive owner and a smaller player base. What can we do to stop this cycle of suggest, debate and move on?