Recent posts by Phoenix00017 on Kongregate

Topic: Legacy of a Thousand Suns / Dear Infestation!

“I got an infested human head?

YES!!!"

- the weird things this game makes me say

Also, +1 to more horrible infestations.

Topic: Game Programming / Integrating Kong intro

Ok, so – this is something we should be able to fix at some point, though our design team is pretty booked for at least the next week. If someone has a fixed version we’d be happy to post that up officially, otherwise hopefully we can get something updated in a few weeks.

Topic: Legacy of a Thousand Suns / Explanation of Galaxy Dome battle results?

I’m confused as to how this is calculated, or how this result could have occurred:

I was defeated with 7 power, and he has -1. What am I missing?

Topic: Steel Legions / Chat not working

If you can provide us more details, it may help us figure out the source of the problem. What OS and browser are you using? What plugins/extensions is it running? Does it happen in other browsers?

Thanks!

Topic: Kongregate / New Kongregate Version: Profile bar changes and minor bug fixes

How is it “more effort” to get to your profile? It’s 20 pixels to the left, same number of clicks. In fact, it’s more centered, so probably is less “effort” on average. Yes, it’ll take some getting used-to to break the muscle memory if you were clicking the username, but the functionality is still present – click the avatar instead. The change saves a lot of miss-clicks and frustration for some people while just sliding over the existing functionality to the avatar.

And yes, we hear you guys on private chat streamlining. I’m not on the product team, so I really can’t make any promises, but we’re aware of it and need to figure out what the best solution is. I think permanence may be unlikely, since that could get unruly and the system wasn’t designed for it, but using some sort of whitelist or join method would probably make sense. Either way, this isn’t the thread to discuss it. :P

Topic: Serious Discussion / For Phoenix00017: Existence of God Pros

Where on earth did Big Bang Theory even come from in this thread? That was quite the non-sequitor. In any case, it was a fairly good write-up (albeit heavily based-on / copied from Wikipedia, but he cited it so I let it go), and no one else had done one, so I posted it. If someone wants to put together a better argument, that’s fine. I agree that the first argument is weak as the first claim is unsupported, but there are some decent points after it. Obviously, if you’re an atheist it’s unlikely to sway you, but that’s not really the point – no one gets swayed by internet forums. :P

The DNA riddle is an interesting one to me. I realize it has some of the same problems as general intelligent design arguments, but it’s still an intriguing point. It’s hard to deny that DNA is a language, a level of abstraction with syntax, representing information through a code. Now, does that inherently imply anything else, or is it simply a mechanism that has grown over time?

I’m a bit ignorant in exactly where the scientific world is with this, but if we can show how DNA developed, or even could have developed, “naturally” (i.e. without intervention), then that certainly would shoot down this argument. Are there other examples of “codes” existing in nature?

Topic: Serious Discussion / For Phoenix00017: Existence of God Pros

Thanks balcerman. While I think your “rational universe” argument is far too brief to make sense, most of this can spawn interesting discussion, so I’ve put it in as the affirmative.

Also, The Atheist’s Prayer is pretty silly – the whole “in a time which you recognize as most proper” clause on the end allows for a simple out. I’ve tried that prayer, it didn’t work. Your response of course is that “God hasn’t decided that the time is proper”, but the result is that nearly every atheist will “never have a proper time”, while a few will naturally “see the light” and those few will be seen as “proof” that the prayer worked.

Topic: Technical Support / Kong+ Problems

Should have just been a temporary glitch, and isn’t related to Kong+. Whole site was semi-down for 20 minutes. Thanks for joining Kong+ though! :D

Topic: Technical Support / Kred problem? (Not surveys/purchase)

alexthenoob – we had a site error that caused some generalized problems. The game you purchased an item in (I just checked) should work fine if you reload the game. If it’s not, you can try contacting the developer, but from our end I see that you have the item in your account. If the game isn’t picking it up, that’s likely an error in the game. Let us know if the developer doesn’t respond and we’ll see if we can get in touch with him for you.

Topic: Technical Support / We’re sorry, an error has occurred. We’ve been automatically notified of the problem, but if it keeps occurring, please email feedback@kongregate.com. Click here to return to the homepage.

Yeah, had some server problems, working on getting a fix up (actually, might be good now!).

Topic: Pirate Galaxy / *Beta Test Forum Threads*

Hm, that’s not good, haha. What operating system and browser? Did the Java plugin download?

Topic: Kongregate / Official Kong Plus Thread

Originally posted by benodoc:

Originally posted by NaturalReject:

Can someone please explain to me exactly what it is that AdBlock+ does? If I understand things correctly, AdBlock+ doesn’t just hide the ads, it prevents them from being there all together, meaning that Kongregate (and in turn, the devs) will receive absolutely no income from users with AdBlock+ enabled. Is this true, or am I misinterpreting something?

You are correct, not that devs ever earned that much from ad revenue to begin with. I’d say ~90%+ of the flash developers funding comes from Flash sites that want their logo on the game and donations from people that like their work.

It’s true that most of the money Flash devs make is from sponsorships, but Kongregate still provides them with probably the best revenue, especially on a per-gameplay basis, of anyone else out there. I don’t have access to a lot of data, but Andy Moore shared this about revenue for the original Steambirds:

Note how Kong advertising revenue is the largest non-sponsorship slice, beating out other ad revenue significantly. So yeah, the ad revenue really does add up (ha, haha). Think about it – we’re sharing a minimum of 25% of all of our ad revenue with our developers. Most flash portals don’t share any of it.

Topic: Kongregate / Official Kong Plus Thread

Originally posted by Maik50:

Originally posted by RiddleMaster:

Originally posted by Maik50:

I’m not sure whether I should buy this or not until I’ll get annotation that this feature is permanent

It is. At this point, Kongregate is in too deep to drop out of it.

Well I hope they’ll repent afterwards and remove this feature. 30$ is a ripoff IMO just for premium membership which potentially highlights you as a target for trolls

You can suppress the K+ chat icon if you’re worried about it. And the biggest feature is removal of ads. If you don’t care about the ads or other features, then you certainly don’t need to buy it. The main Kongregate you know and love is unchanged (outside of cool new tabs in chat, and the ability to be invited to private chat rooms). :)

Originally posted by WiiPlayer113:

So mods get free Kong Plus enrollment? So technically now being a mod is a paid job…
I don’t see how that is fair.

Also, if I signed up now, would I be charged 30$ again on January 1st 2012?

No, you will not be charged on Jan. 1st. That would be beyond mean, and we don’t roll that way. ;) It’s for 1 year from when you sign up, regardless of sign up date.

Topic: Pirate Galaxy / *Beta Test Forum Threads*

This forum is currently for the beta version of Pirate Galaxy. The game is not publicly available on Kongregate and the integration process is not complete. As such, you may find bugs, have problems with an account, etc. The plan is to allow you to keep these accounts for launch, but it’s possible that that could change. If accounts are reset, any purchases made would be manually copied over to the public release.

As this is a beta, please let us know about any problems. Bugs especially, but if there is some issue with the user experience, confusion about what to do, problem with the game, whatever, please post in the forum. Not everything is guaranteed to be fixed, but feedback is appreciated.

Also, these threads may be deleted at launch, especially if they discuss problems that are fixed prior to going public. Fair warning. :)

Have fun!

Topic: Zombies Online / Find friends here!!!

Looks like a bug on our (Kongregate’s) side. The link is correct, but our forums are tweaking the formatting. I’ll see if I can get this fixed.

EDIT: We’ll try to fix the formatting bug, but in the meantime you can use HTML formatting to get it to work. I’ll add instructions to the first post.

Topic: Kongregate / New Kongregate Version: New Homepage Split Test

Tomiku – my slightly snarky response was at Megadude’s “I shouldn’t be forced to” comment and his demands for an opt out. You weren’t raging at all and asked a very legitimate question. The answer unfortunately is “no”, since that would throw off our data, but it’s a reasonable thing to ask. :)

Topic: Kongregate / New Kongregate Version: New Homepage Split Test

Originally posted by furrymessiah:

It has its pros and cons, I think.

I like being able to see the icons for the monthly/weekly games, but it de-emphasizes the fact that those games are in a contest.

The Recommended Badges thing is a cute idea, but I’m not fond of the way it doesn’t tell you the parameters of obtaining the badge.

Other than that, I like the new layout.

Regarding the monthly/weekly games, those actually aren’t the contest leaders. Those are the top-rated games for the previous 7 days and previous 30 days. While they will often be similar, the actual contest results are visible on www.kongregate.com/contests. Since we’re using a rolling 7 day and rolling 30 day high score, these “high rated” games should change around a lot and provide some interesting and potentially hard to find gems to try out.

I should also mention that games that are featured elsewhere (like with new badges or in the popular games list) won’t show up in these lists.

Originally posted by Megadude2008:

Originally posted by Tomiku:

…so apparently I’m in the half that sees it. Can I opt out somehow?

I want to know this too. I never asked nor was asked to take part in this, so I shouldn’t be forced to. Give us an opt-out option now!

It’s not a forced clinical drug trial, my friend. It’s a new layout on a free gaming site. “shouldn’t be forced to” really doesn’t apply. Websites try out new designs all the time, and place people into test groups. Many don’t even tell them that it is happening, but we like to be a little more up front with everyone (plus, you guys would figure it out pretty quickly anyway, haha).

As for all of the questions about “opting out”, and choosing between the various layouts, that would pretty much destroy the purpose of the split test. Also, when we do pick one, we won’t be able to maintain multiple layouts – they use different data sets that we would have to always try to keep in synch, as well as different asset sizes.

Topic: Kongregate APIs / ptc sites (sry wrong forum)

Very likely, yes. Pay to click sites are still a form of fraud. While (maybe) not “botting” (i.e. done by a computer), they are still “fake” clicks in that the clicks are not done by legitimate users. As such, the value of the ads drop (across the site – if this gets big enough you could lower everyone’s ad revenue), and the clicks are thus fraudulent.

I should also add that it’s unlikely that a pay-to-click service will pay out positively for you. You are likely earning $1.50/1000 gameplays or so on Kongregate. This is one of the best rates available for Flash games. If you’re paying more than that, then you’re losing money. If you’re paying less, then something doesn’t add up – it’s likely a botting site that is just telling you otherwise. You can’t pay real people $1.50 to get them to click on something 1000 times.

So, basically, don’t use pay to click services. They’re bad news all around.

Topic: Clash of the Dragons / Bug buy Dragon Coins

This might be kind of random, but is there a # at the end of the game URL for you? I know that can cause connection problems sometimes. (Please don’t ask me why)

You may also want to try the usual clear cache / restart browser / try another browser method.

Topic: Kongregate / Cards glitch.

That’s just fighting dirty.

Topic: Kongregate / Cards glitch.

Noooooo, don’t change it! My profile page is so pretty now!

Originally posted by Jeimuzu185:

Yep, I have it too, gonna guess they were implanting the cards and item thing together, and it went wrong.

I don’t know if that was intentional, but that was the best verb choice ever.

Topic: Nadirim / Authentication required

This was a bug from the initial launch and should be fixed. Sorry for the confusion.

Topic: Shadowland Online / 38 days vip cant, cant train all 5 heroes

Originally posted by zqgame:

that’s not true.
being a VIP, you have an extra trainning spot, you can upload your own photo as your portrait```
actually, there is a full explanation about the VIP before you start gaming.
dear all, pls pay attention to that ^^

It would be useful to add this information in the mouse-over description of VIPx1 (and the other VIP slots) that you can get in the wheel, or buy. No one is going to notice the description when they first start playing – they don’t know what any of it means yet.

Topic: Shadowland Online / Simple Comment

madoushi321 – The battles do increase significantly in a day, but they reset back to 0 the next day. If they get too long, come back tomorrow and you’ll be able to do a bunch of battles quickly again. :)

Topic: Shadowland Online / Suddenly my army cooldown is gone.

I think what is happening is that it actually is starting at 1 second or so, but your battle takes more time than that, so by the time you finish the cooldown is gone.