Ich's Games

[Ballbarian]

I'm betting that words of encouragement would be welcome.

Gandalf's Servers

[WraithLord]

I agree hall of shame for hosts is too negative.

Maybe a list of active hosts with the number of games they hosted to the end and then number of stopped games instead. This kind of list would help players decide with which host they want to play.

WRT zach discussion, just one last statement if I may, when his server went down and he sort of disappeared my first reaction (and I think of most players) was concern. But then as supposed "digital" footprints of his suggested he's well and just ignoring us I had implored him to give me the game files so that I could host it (PBEM) to the end. Sadly, I never got a response. But anyway, this is a rare scenario, the more likely scenarios (that I've unfortunately encountered) are host server was stolen, burnt down etc.

[Aezeal]

Since llama is nearly always up maybe the other servers could send him a copy of each turn ? (as suggested before) (of course I have no idea how difficult this would be, and how much of a hassle it would be for llama... but I'm volunteering him anyway )

Seems like someone should hurt that Zach guy though :G

[Gandalf Parker]

WraithLord said:
I agree hall of shame for hosts is too negative.

Let me chime in totally agreeing on this. That would be like a hall of shame for people who almost climbed Mt Everest. Or people who almost achieved world peace. Im sorry but I do not recommend shaming people who almost hosted a game perfectly. It might work better to thank them, mention the things they did right, and then mention somewhere that they might want to ask the other hosts for a hint on.

I will also mention that its not the hardware, or the software, that tends to kill most hosts. Managing the game is nothing compared to managing the users. So if a host dies the players might want to look there for the problems first, and take their own steps to not let it happen to their next host.

(ok, old grumpy server rant mode /off)