Suggestions for the 'free games project' - Please read

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Suggestions for the 'free games project' - Please read

(21 posts) (12 voices)

Started 14 years ago by Whiterabbit-uk
Latest reply from Whiterabbit-uk

Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

I don't know about you guys, but I'm a little jaded with having to post games at set times. that is I post between certain days then Wizz does it the next week, and rO posts on Fridays both weeks and Thursday when it's usually my turn. What I propose is that we post a game whenever we feel like it, but keep the same format as usual, that is ‘Week number’ followed by ‘Free games for the Weekend’ then the name or names of the games. I think we will enjoy doing it so much more with the restrictions lifted.

It shouldn’t matter if we all post a game on the same day or week, post as many as you like when you like.

The project is well established and has a great access feature thanks to G@rgoyle. I'd like to see it continue and hopefully include all the best freeware and abandonware games that are available.

I also propose that we open it up to multiplayer only games as well. Though if you think that would dilute the project I’m happy to ignore them. Maybe only include truly free online games, not those that although free to play have extras that you can purchase to enhance your game, for example SAGA which although free also has a whole pile of extra troops you can purchase. I won’t be concentrating on online games for now though as I want to clear the backlog of games I have in my to post folder (there’s well over a hundred). Maybe TNIP could take over posting the online games? But anyone feel free. :)

I also suggest that anyone can add games to the project so long as they maintain the title and ensure that they have tested the games they are posting to make sure they are free of malware. also to give any warnings about the site you download from (I say this because even sites that may not have a squeaky clean reputation still can have good software to download)

I will maintain G@rgoyles synopsis. I've been working on catching up for the past 2 or 3 weeks and only have a couple more pages of games to work through; though I've not actually added all of the games that I've coded. I’ve got a word document with around a hundred ready to add. Hopefully by mid March it will be totally up to date. :)

I'd like to thank all you guys for helping over the past year and almost a half since we started this project. I never envisioned it would be as comprehensive as it is. You’ve all done a fabulous job of searching out the good games. I’d also like to thank all those that haven’t directly posted any games but have emailed me and the others with suggestions to post. The combined effort of you all have seen a fabulous array of games which I think is one of the best sources of free games to be found anywhere now (bar maybe Caimans)

Oh yeah, once I've finished catching up with the synopsis, I will be checking out all of the links to make sure they are all still valid. I know of at least one link that's now dead, so will need to either find new links or remove the game (Wings of War).

One more suggestion... What do you think to me adding a small thumbnail image to each game? I was thinking it may enhance the synopsis, though it would increase the size of the overall synopsis. I could do a duplicate so that we have one without images and one with. I was also thinking that we could even add a link to a video at the end of each entry Of course both of those suggestions are going to take several months to complete as there's approaching 2 thousand games in the list now. (Amazing)

Posted 14 years ago #
Idunnobutiwastold
Gaming Acolyte

I agree, Whiterabbit. I think it would be a great idea if the contributors to the Games Project began posting links to new games whenever they feel like it. I've just installed a free multiplayer networked game called Warsow (sic) from this website http://www.warsow.net. The Deathmatch runs fine on Windows 7 (except I have no one to challenge). As for expanding the level of detail of the synopsis, I'm thinking that all your additional work could be lost if GOTD ever upgrades its database engine sometime in the future. I say this because I've seen other sites in the past where this kind of scenario has occurred. On a happy note, Disney's Alice in Wonderland premieres this week at our local movie theaters. Needless to say, there's a rabbit in the movie.

Posted 14 years ago #
delenn13
Minbari Ambassador

I have been trying to tell you all that for a few months now. You are going to burn yourselves out. I have LARGE folders for EACH of you with links and some are even broken down into type of game. So you will get no argument from me if you post when you want.

As far of the thumbnails, IDKBIWT is probably correct. Those pics could be lost if they change things. With over 2,000 games in the list a person should be able to find a game they want w/o pics. Besides there are plenty of pics in the game review.

I want to thank you guys too. Sometimes I don't have the time to post a note or thanks each time a game a post but rest assured I do check them out.

BTW, Wrascally Wabbit, your message box is full again. Sooooo check your email, please.

Posted 14 years ago #
FireBride
Member

One thing that is important about a host of new people posting links that WR has stated is so important. The sites/games that are posted must be tested by them to ensure that they are virus, adware, spyware, malware free. Otherwise, great idea!

WR, you are a lovely person and a treasure, not just because of all that you have done for this site, but because of who you are as a person and in your character and many kindnesses and patience that you have demonstrated about yourself to all of us..We really care about you....

Posted 14 years ago #
wizzard_of_ozz2004
Games Master

I think it would be grand if there were some way to list the games by genre too. It's a little hard to go to the synopsis and find a particular type of game that you want to play with the current set-up. Possibly just dreaming here, but I think that would be a vast improvement as well.

Posted 14 years ago #
FireBride
Member

By the way, wouldn't it be nice to have a "Ladies Day" and offer some free games that are geared for the ladies?? How about it? You could also have a "Gentleman's Day" and a "Kids Day" with game themes designed for the enjoyment of each group. That would be something new and nice, if it is not too much trouble???

Posted 14 years ago #
ibwebb
Member

I think that this project was started in the spirit of fun and giving/teaching that there is still a lot of fun for free out there. I didn't know that you all had boxed yourselves in with rules and regulations (besides the obvious about being free, free of nasty stuff, etc). I agree with Firebride; you all are going to burn yourselves out (or maybe already are in the midst of it) and need to lighten up. I do not thank anyone on here can claim to not have more games than they can play. I know that ALL of you are appreciated and cared about very much for all of your kindness (not just the free games you find, review, check, link, post,etc). I am as guilty as anyone about not giving the thanks that you all deserve, but not sure how that would even be possible without pages and pages of thanks and comments. ANYWHO, what I am saying it that you all are doing an incredible thing and an awesome job. Keep it fun. Whatever that means for the team; keep it where you enjoy it and it isn't becoming a task. I don't know how all this is kept or backed up, but I would hate for you to put in all the work of pics and video links; then a crash or update sweeps it all away.

I guess my final say is this. Post when you have something you want to share, play when you don't, and do what you want as long as you are still enjoying it! Now how about a place or way to thank all of you for all of this? How about a seperate web page that all this is on and it could also help draw people to GOTD? LOL just kidding.. you all don't need more on your plate!

Thanks again!
ibwebb

Posted 14 years ago #
Delilah
Member

Yes, please, don't stress yourselves out over this. Don't add any more bells and/or whistles; don't make any more work for yourselves! It's supposed to be fun (isn't it?) As ibwebb said:

Post when you have something you want to share, play when you don't, and do what you want as long as you are still enjoying it!

And I thank you, too.

Posted 14 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Thanks for all your comments. They are very much appreciated.

We didn't really have any rules, it was just that we'd mapped out a Rota which is what I've found difficult to maintain, and which is why I decided to take a break from posting any games when TNIP offered to help. Though I couldn't resist posting some games last weekend and this one just gone, lol.

As for your suggestion Wizz; I've been thinking on the same lines and was considering creating a list with genres. Again, this will be a long term project. As for posting images, you are right; it will only take a few mouse clicks to find images of any game we've posted. Anything before September won't have in post images, but it's just as easy to Image Google the name of the game to see what its like. Or watch the videos if we've linked to one.

I've always been like this. When we were given our final year project for my B.Sc. we were told that around 30 hours of field work would be required and maybe a 50 page report. I spent more like 300 hours on the field work and another 300 in the lab and my report reflected this as it was over 300 pages in length. My tutor said it was better than some of the M.Sc. dissertations she had read. When I did my M.Sc. dissertation I had over 300 pages of references. I'd spent a year scouring the libraries (Cambridge library plus a couple of government backed research stations libraries). We didn't have access to the internet like it is today, though you could buy references from the library, but it was costly. I just spent hundreds of hours researching my subject (Heavy metal pollution and its health effects on humans and the environment). I started a review of a game called Battlefield 2. It's one of those games that had a very large modding community (there's still a few groups working on mods 5 years after it was released) Anyway, I set myself the task of reviewing every established mod and wanted to review every map created for the game. that meant playing each map for a few hours minimum. with the screen captures the review grew to around 1300 pages. I never finished it because I just burnt out on it. I still have a hankering to finish it off because I wasn't that far from completing it. However many of the links to the map downloads will now be dead. I'd cross referenced all the maps, so if you found the same map being used in a different mod you could navigate to all the other mod’s that used that maps. There must have been thousands of cross references. I spent over two years working on it virtually every day, but never uploaded it to the community.

'Scuze the waffle, lol (I seem to like 300, lol)

:)

Posted 14 years ago #
freebird31
Member

Guys.... as a user of those game synopsessesses.... I would LOVE a thumbnail. I am a visual browser so to speak, and if I see no thumbnail, I can almost not choose a game!

so... maybe you will do that thumbnail thingy with the games... I at least would certainly appreciate that feature!!!

thanks for all your hard work in finding and suplying us with these games!!

Posted 14 years ago #
thenameipicked
Member

Oh, I am very much in support of this change, as it probably means that I will get to post more often. I'm not going to set a schedule due to school, but get ready to create another folder with my links :P

Posted 14 years ago #
reverseOrder
Member

Oh, I somehow missed this post. I fully support these changes.
I like the idea of removing the time restrictions and having more people
post games instead of just us three all the time.

Posted 14 years ago #
Bigun
Member

Request Instructions:

While reading through a list of games for any given week I will often see the name of the game that I think I would enjoy playing. Later, when I start looking for the game to download, I run into a problem. Seldom can I remembered the name of the game or the week that the game was listed in. All I may remember is the type of game. The Search Is on - or is it?

If I decide to search for my sought after game starting with some arbitrary week number that I think will fall before the game was listed, and perceived through a number of weeks that I think that will include the game, what will I get?

Example: I start out looking for a game that I think was listed somewhere between the time of week 68 through week 71. My search term is as follows
"Week 66 - Free games for the weekday

" I do not seem to ever get the comprehensive game list that I am looking for that start with week 66. Instead of that when I get are excerpts from posts discussing a the game from lists that include a time element spanning several years. If I change the week number I get almost the identical list.

I am looking for a way to list the games starting with week 70 and going through week 75. At this time, is there any way to do this? WhiteRabbit, when you mention a posting a synopsis for individual games, with or without a thumbnail picture to go with the synopsis, are you talking about having a database and if you look up a game by its name then a synopsis of that game will pop up? Or will games be listed (game one, game two, game three, and so on) with a short synopsis of the game included alongside the game's name?

I am not suggesting that anyone take additional time or take on additional work to pretty up the game project.

What I would like to be able to do it scroll through a list of games not locating just one game at a time. Such a list was started perhaps as long as a year ago and then after a significant number of games were listed that thread was closed for no reason known to me. We had a simple method to look for a game and now I am not sure that we have a method at all.

Posted 14 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Just as soon as I've brought the synopsis up to date we are going to be changing to look of the synopsis. although I've already started to do this Wizzard has volunteered to continue the work, that is the list will be split up into alphabetic lists of games by genre. This will make it a little easier to find a game if you know the type of game it is.

There are other ideas floating around which may be incorporated or form the basis of a seperate list, but this is all possible future plans that I don't want to discuss until it's certain that they will be created.

I am somewhat jaded with the project at the moment and just want to do a minimal amount of work till my batteries have been recharged. I have no intention of deserting the project, just taking a back seat for a while; catching up on many of the games that I still haven't got around to playing since purchasing them several months ago. I must admit I was spending an inordinate amount of time on the project up until fairly recently but realized I needed to spend more time on personal persuits and my family, who sadly were losing me to my enthusiasm.

regards

W.R.

p.s.

Bigun, I need advice on deactivating my installation of Dragon Naturally Speaking. I lost the reg to a windows reinstall and remmbered you said it had to be deactivated, but I don't know how to? PM me if you would. Thanks.

'Scuze my lack of contact via Emails recently, I've been pre-occupied almost exclusivly on a few projects and have tended to neglect my emails (whats new, lol)

Posted 14 years ago #
ibwebb
Member

I was thinking about this the other day (because I ran across some free games and was trying to see if they had already been offered) and came across some other thoughts on the subject..and now if I have not lost you in that strange sentence I will get to my point. I believe that if you are going to open the game project up so that anyone can post a game that they find then there needs to be some boundaries/format. If nothing else there needs to be some format that should be used as the way the team wants them posted. This will make it easier on whoever it is that is working on the synopsis to put them in there order. Instead of them having to go through the whole post to get their information for it; there can be a template/format (for lack of a better word at the moment) that says how the information should be posted. If there isn't one suggested/inforced then you may very well have a mess of different ways that they are posted to the forum leaving Wizzard (I believe that is the last I heard that is working on it) spending a lot of time just searching for whatever information he needs to fit it into the synopsis. Just a thought.

Posted 14 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

When I started the project I said I'd only be posting brief details of the game with a download link. That has metamorphosed into something completely different. Usually a title with the size of the download followed by a brief summary of the posters opinion on the game than a cut and paste of the games description, with a few screenshots if possible scattered amongst the dialogue to brek it up. If a video is available that should also be posted and finally a download link. :) I hope this clarifies thinks a little.

W.R.

Posted 14 years ago #
ibwebb
Member

Okay, so not to be a total bumblehead, but so is this opened up then and anyone finding a new free game can post? Or is this still in the air?

Posted 14 years ago #
thenameipicked
Member

I assume so...I have posted a few games :P

Posted 14 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Of course; anyone can post links to games. All I ask is r=that whoever does, sticks to the format we've been following for the past 18 months. The title being the main thig to stick by.

There's never been any restrictions on anyone posting games in these forums. The original idea stemmed from the lack of a regular game giveaway. But it was never intended to take away the right of anyone posting links to games in these public forums. :)

The more community members posting free games, the better the project becomes because I believe that each of us has different preferences and we are more likely to select games we prefer than those we don't. Thus we get a more diversified group of games everytime someone new posts games. :)

W.R.

Posted 14 years ago #
Deserthead47
Member

Here's one I found on another site(4-Free) and checked back to source,I am downloading now to check it out 'Ferrari Virtual Race',download and more info available at
http://www.ferrari.com/English/Community/Ferrari_Virtual_Race/Pages/Game_home.aspx

Quick update,15 minutes and 6 laps later,seems quite enjoyable.Won 2 races and had a fine smash at 170mph.
Easy to set up and can be controlled by various devices(I'm using a flightstick).
Not bad for a free racing game.

Posted 14 years ago #
Whiterabbit-uk
Games Guru

Nice one Deserthead - do you want to post it in the free games project.

Week 78 - Freegames for the week - Ferrari Virtual race

:)

Posted 14 years ago #

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