# Gamers Seeking Gamers Trials (Community Supporters Only)



## Morrus (Aug 5, 2008)

This thread is for feedback from those helpng trial the new Gamers Seeking Gamers system.


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## blargney the second (Aug 5, 2008)

I'm filling out my profile right now, and here are some things that came up for me:

1) The Game Location (State) field is awkward for non-americans.  Do I enter BC or British Columbia?  Some clarification text would be helpful.  Bear in mind that the long name is rough because peepul cant spel, and the abbreviation is rough because they're sometimes subject to interpretation.

2) The Currently Playing field should be a checkbox to allow multiple selections.  I'm playing in two 3.5 games and a 4e game.

3) The Days of the week and Times available to play could be merged into a 28-option grid of checkboxes.  My availability is different on weekends than it is on weekdays.

I hope this helps!
-blarg


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## Rodrigo Istalindir (Aug 5, 2008)

blargney the second said:


> 1) The Game Location (State) field is awkward for non-americans.  Do I enter BC or British Columbia?  Some clarification text would be helpful.  Bear in mind that the long name is rough because peepul cant spel, and the abbreviation is rough because they're sometimes subject to interpretation.




Do you want to play with people living in British Columbia that can't spell 'British Columbia'? 

I must say it freaked me out when it started insisting I fill out the questionaire, since (apparently) I'd turned on 'looking for games' 6 1/2 years ago and forgot all about it.  Since it's up at the top, I was getting increasingly annoyed at it insisting I fill out info for some reason. Fortunately, I stopped being a 'user' long enough to actually look at the page and see why I was being clueless.


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## Morrus (Aug 5, 2008)

blargney the second said:


> 1) The Game Location (State) field is awkward for non-americans.  Do I enter BC or British Columbia?  Some clarification text would be helpful.  Bear in mind that the long name is rough because peepul cant spel, and the abbreviation is rough because they're sometimes subject to interpretation.




I agree.  Unfortunately, there's no way to have every county/state/province in the world, so for non-US states, we're stuck with a text box which relies on people to spell their own address ocrrectly.

But then, do you really want to play in a game with someone who can't spell their own address? 



> 2) The Currently Playing field should be a checkbox to allow multiple selections.  I'm playing in two 3.5 games and a 4e game.




That's a perfectly reasonable change - I'll get that done.



> 3) The Days of the week and Times available to play could be merged into a 28-option grid of checkboxes.  My availability is different on weekends than it is on weekdays.




How do you mean?


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## Brown Jenkin (Aug 5, 2008)

Double Post, Sorry. See Bellow


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## Brown Jenkin (Aug 5, 2008)

2 things I noticed right away.

1. The links to this thread on the Gamers Seeking Gamers section page are missing the "h" in the http: 

2. Where is HERO System?

Edit: not trying to be rude, just concise.


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## Morrus (Aug 5, 2008)

Brown Jenkin said:


> 2 things I noticed right away.
> 
> 1. The links to this thread on the Gamers Seeking Gamers section page are missing the "h" in the http:




Thanks!



> 2. Where is HERO System?




Added it.  We're approaching our limit of 31 entries now, though!


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## Drowned Hero (Aug 5, 2008)

My 5 cents 

When i read gamers seeking games i first thought !oh a new system on the forums to find a game to play pbp! great!. to then realize it was for games over the table, face to face.

Maybe a title as Gamers seeking 'tabletop or Real life' games, would make it more clear.DH[/quote]


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## Festivus (Aug 5, 2008)

I was just going to ask about those of us who run online games, not PBP.  I didn't see an option obvious to me for online anywhere in there but thought it would be nice.


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## Morrus (Aug 5, 2008)

Drowned Hero said:


> My 5 cents
> 
> When i read gamers seeking games i first thought !oh a new system on the forums to find a game to play pbp! great!. to then realize it was for games over the table, face to face.
> 
> Maybe a title as Gamers seeking 'tabletop or Real life' games, would make it more clear.DH




Hmmm.  It says Gamers seeking _*Gamers*, _not Gamers seeking Games.


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## Morrus (Aug 5, 2008)

Festivus said:


> I was just going to ask about those of us who run online games, not PBP.  I didn't see an option obvious to me for online anywhere in there but thought it would be nice.





Good point.  Online and PBP games never even occurred to me!  I'll get that added.


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## Merkuri (Aug 5, 2008)

The link to this thread in the big, "Hey Community Supporters!" box is missing the h in the http.

Also, the text boxes for misc information (like My Character and Game Details) are much bigger than the section borders.  Changing the size of the window doesn't seem to make a difference.  I'm using IE right now, so it may be different in other browsers.


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## blargney the second (Aug 5, 2008)

Morrus said:


> But then, do you really want to play in a game with someone who can't spell their own address?



Heh.  I already play with a surprising number of dyslexics, so it's no huge difference to me.  Also, typos happen.



> How do you mean?



Something like the mockup image I've attached.
-blarg


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## WhatGravitas (Aug 5, 2008)

Morrus said:


> TAdded it.  We're approaching our limit of 31 entries now, though!



Savage Worlds? 

Cheers, LT.


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## Merkuri (Aug 6, 2008)

blargney the second said:


> Something like the mockup image I've attached.




I like that idea, but it would be nice to have checkboxes that would check all times for a certain day or all days for a certain time.  That way you don't have to check a ton of boxes if you're available all day long for certain days.


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## Morrus (Aug 6, 2008)

Merkuri said:


> I like that idea, but it would be nice to have checkboxes that would check all times for a certain day or all days for a certain time.  That way you don't have to check a ton of boxes if you're available all day long for certain days.




That would be a LOT of checkboxes...


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## WhatGravitas (Aug 6, 2008)

I think you broke the profile editor... at least I cannot edit it any longer without getting this error (screenshot attached).

Furthermore, I think the search screen is an awfully long screen to scroll around. Especially the two big boxes for games (now playing/interested in). It would go a long way to put them next to each other.

Cheers, LT.


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## Morrus (Aug 6, 2008)

Lord Tirian said:


> I think you broke the profile editor... at least I cannot edit it any longer without getting this error (screenshot attached).




Have you put something in the indicated field?


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## WhatGravitas (Aug 6, 2008)

Morrus said:


> Have you put something in the indicated field?



Ah, yes. Found it, wasn't there before, nor was it needed, no? (I'm just daft, sorry...  )

Cheers, LT.


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## scholz (Aug 6, 2008)

*Argh!*

This sounded like a good idea. 

However, after three failed attempts, I finally got it.

In each case I neglected a single field (or in one case, I left out part of an email address). The system rejected the entire update, so everything I wrote got erased. You need something that updates each field as your write it, so this problem doesn't happpen.


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## DarkKestral (Aug 6, 2008)

Morrus, I don't have a Community Supporter Account, but I see the new GSG section and can search for games, though I don't see the ways to add a game. I don't know if that was fully intended right now, but there you go.


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## CleverNickName (Aug 6, 2008)

If "BESM" means what I think it does, shouldn't it be "BECM" instead (for Basic/Expert/Companion/Masters boxed sets?)

If not...should BECM be added?


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## garyh (Aug 6, 2008)

CleverNickName said:


> If "BESM" means what I think it does, shouldn't it be "BECM" instead (for Basic/Expert/Companion/Masters boxed sets?)
> 
> If not...should BECM be added?




I believe "BESM" is Big Eyes Small Mouths, a d20 game that's totally anime.

Really, it's based on anime.  What?


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## Morrus (Aug 6, 2008)

CleverNickName said:


> If "BESM" means what I think it does, shouldn't it be "BECM" instead (for Basic/Expert/Companion/Masters boxed sets?)




Big Eyes Small Mouth


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## Drowned Hero (Aug 6, 2008)

Morrus said:


> Hmmm.  It says Gamers seeking _*Gamers*, _not Gamers seeking Games.




Yes. confusing isint it


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## CleverNickName (Aug 7, 2008)

Morrus said:


> Big Eyes Small Mouth



Gotcha.  I have updated my profile.  The database is coming together nicely.

I guess OD&D would be closest to the BECMI stuff, then?


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## Mistwell (Aug 7, 2008)

1. Should be a way to enter zip code in the US and search within X miles of zip code.  Using city will be useless for my city...I live in Los Angeles, composed of 42 individual cities.  If I put in Sherman Oaks for example the odds of me finding someone in that particular city is near 0.  But I have 4 other cities within walking distance of Sherman Oaks, and about 25 within easy driving distance, and most folks will not just put "Los Angeles" because that has a specific meaning in this area.  

Which is the long way of saying that everything is done within range of a zip code in the US, and all mapping software and other matching stuff is similarly done that way,

2. When I search for anyone in the entire US playing any game, I get zero matches.  So either I am doing something wrong, or the system is not currently actually functioning.

3. It should specify which fields are mandatory to conduct a search.


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## Inferno! (Aug 8, 2008)

Lord Tirian said:


> Savage Worlds?
> 
> Cheers, LT.




I second that, need Savage Worlds


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## Morrus (Aug 8, 2008)

Mistwell said:


> 1. Should be a way to enter zip code in the US and search within X miles of zip code.  Using city will be useless for my city...I live in Los Angeles, composed of 42 individual cities.  If I put in Sherman Oaks for example the odds of me finding someone in that particular city is near 0.  But I have 4 other cities within walking distance of Sherman Oaks, and about 25 within easy driving distance, and most folks will not just put "Los Angeles" because that has a specific meaning in this area.
> 
> Which is the long way of saying that everything is done within range of a zip code in the US, and all mapping software and other matching stuff is similarly done that way,




I don't remotely possess the skills to do that, unfortunately.  I hope that at some point I can find someone to do it for us.



> 2. When I search for anyone in the entire US playing any game, I get zero matches.  So either I am doing something wrong, or the system is not currently actually functioning.




My fault - bad phrasing.  "Any" isn't any differnet to "D&D 3.5" from the profile field POV, so it's specifically searching for people who have checked "Any", not people who have checked any of the others.  If that makes sense.  And nobody has actually selected "Any".

It's to do with the way vBulletin search functions work; again, beyond my skills to do an X or Y or Z search because that requires recoding how vBulletin searches.  For now, I'lll remove "Any", and, agan, I hope it's something I can find someone to do.




> 3. It should specify which fields are mandatory to conduct a search.




None are.  If you leave it all blank, you'll get the entire member list.


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## Urbannen (Aug 9, 2008)

There is no option for Classic D&D, also called Basic D&D, also called B/X/C/M, also called RC (Rules Cyclopedia) D&D (and I'm sure there must be other names).  This is the version of D&D that the Gazetteer series was made for.

If I recall correctly, OD&D stands for Original D&D, which was first published in 1974 and is a different rules set.


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## Kichwas (Feb 22, 2009)

The most useful thing I could think of adding to the search tool for this would be the ability to search by the first three numbers of a zip code, and to sort the results by zip code.

That would be particularly useful for people living in large cities: San Francisco area, LA area, New York area, Seattle, Boston, Chicago... etc...
- which is probably most of us.


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## Morrus (Feb 22, 2009)

arcady said:


> The most useful thing I could think of adding to the search tool for this would be the ability to search by the first three numbers of a zip code, and to sort the results by zip code.
> 
> That would be particularly useful for people living in large cities: San Francisco area, LA area, New York area, Seattle, Boston, Chicago... etc...
> - which is probably most of us.




Do you not get results from entering "New York", "Seattle", "Boston", "Chicago" in the location field?

As a test, I just entered "New York" and got 158 results, which seems reasonable given that the majority of people haven't updated their profiles with the relevant data.

If 158 people in a single city, narrowed down to those who (a) are members of EN World and (b) have made the effort to provide their location data aren't enough, then you're in a _far _more enviable gaming position than I!


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## Kichwas (Feb 22, 2009)

Yes, but...

What if I live in Oakland, you live in Berkeley, and another player lives in Emmeryville, and a GM in Richmond wants to start a game. Which city does he pick?

All of those are within 1-5 miles of each other - and all share the same game shop. They're close enough that decades ago... after school my friends and I would walk through any given three of them in the same day (well, not Richmond, but maybe El Cerritto or Albany).

That's the problem with large metropolises, they're really composed of lots of little cities.

I myself live in Daly City, I'm about 500 feet from San Francisco, and a mile from Pacifica, 3 miles from South San Francisco, and 20 minutes from San Mateo. I used to be in a game in San Mateo in fact, and while I drove 20 minutes south, another player drove 20 minutes north up from Sunnyvale, and another drove 30 minutes from San Jose.

We're all little cities - but we all share the same first 3 numbers of our zips codes. By contrast in San Francisco itself, I've had one zip code on my side of the stree, say... 94111, and across the street was 94101, while down the block might be 94110.
(Hypothetical examples).

The same pattern holds in LA, NY, and the other metro regions. My brother lives in greater seattle, and the exact town he lives in wraps in a C shape around and inside of another three towns.

City names for searching become useless for us.


But it gets worse...

If I region search, do I search for SF, San Francisco, Bay Area, BA, SF BA, San Francisco Bay Area, or SF Bay Area... or?
- And how many people in the results chose to put their region rather than their city?




In US metro-regions, the only thing everyone there has in common that they have no confusion over what to call, is the first three numbers of their zip code.

Its the only constant, and a very quick way to judge that yes, this person is within distance of me.


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## Morrus (Feb 22, 2009)

Surely that can create exactly the same problem?  So you live in Oakland, and I live in Berkeley; or maybe you live in zip code 123 and I live 30 feet away but just over the boundary for zip code 124?  They're just types of naming conventions, and they're all areas next to each other, surely?

I'm assuming here that zip codes work the same way as postcodes do here.  I'm in SO18 6RX and the next road over might be over the border for SO19.


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## Kichwas (Feb 22, 2009)

Zip codes here radiate out.

Everyone in a metro region will share the first 2 or 3 numbers, and two adjacent codes will just have the last number different. So it is a handy way for gauging 'viable distance'.

Example:
LONG URL of google image search

If I see a 940xx or a 941xx, I know that person is close to me. But a 942xx is too far. Once you know your own zip code, a scan of the first three pulls up anything very close. Changing digit 3 by one number up or down can give you the next regions over, and one hit there tells you what is close or far.

For me 941 is just across my city line, as I'm on the north edge of 940 (on a rare day without fog, I can see those pesky 941ers with their 941er ways lurking about over there ), but 942 is about 100 miles away at the state capital. So I'm in the exception - where there are two 3rd digits that work for me. For most people in large metro-regions, the first 3 digits are a map of everything nearby.

It just gives you the most viable list to start working with, particularly in places that have a lot of small cities or small towns close together - such as San Francisco's bay area, New England, and Seattle. I would think for New York too, but maybe they're more used to calling themselves New Yorkers even when one lives in the Bronx, another in Harlem, Long Island, or Manhattan. When I call some of my friends over there, they correct me with 'no I'm not in New York, I'm in A, B, or C, and others correct me and say 'yeah, this is technically A, but it's really New York... 
- Which honestly happens here in California too... and is another reason why using the numbers helps to remove the layer of human-induced confusion.


Anyway - this isn't a 'make or break' thingy. 
Just thought it would be a handy suggestion. On these people search engines I almost always search all of California and then scan through by hand - people fail to put the useful data in all too often.


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